


The Guardian

by Kingtide



Series: The Epic Of Will Robinson [3]
Category: Lost in Space (TV 2018)
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Coming of Age, Dark, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, Heavy Angst, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 57
Words: 167,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28152438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingtide/pseuds/Kingtide
Summary: This is the final sequel to my story that began with He Who Saw The Deep.Judy and Will are now prisoners of the Intelligence Agency. While Will is forced to work for them, Judy is trying to help him, while wondering if everything her brother has told them is true or imagined. Penny, once again separated from her siblings, is dealing with the things she experienced on the Amber Planet, when she uncovers a conspiracy that may mean she will never see her brother and sister again. Meanwhile, Will has decided he just doesn't want to be Will Robinson any longer, when he makes a decision that will change things forever.
Relationships: John Robinson & Maureen Robinson, Judy Robinson & Penny Robinson & Will Robinson, Penny Robinson & Original Character(s), Vijay Dhar & Penny Robinson, Will Robinson & Don West, Will Robinson & Dr. Smith/June Harris, Will Robinson & Robot, Will Robinson/Original Character(s)
Series: The Epic Of Will Robinson [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1915345
Comments: 122
Kudos: 11





	1. Prologue

“You ready, Will?”

“Yeah.”

Judy looked at her little brother. He didn’t sound that confident. “You’re gonna love this Will, I promise. You like roller coasters, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, this is like an all-day roller coaster on water.”

“Judy, you should have gone with them. I’m ruining your trip.”

“Look at me Will.” He was staring out at the river. “Look at me.” He looked back where she stood at the end of the inflatable kayak. “This is what I want to do. You and me. OK? I love hanging out with you, especially when it’s just the two of us.”

“Thanks, Judy.” He smiled at her. And while he knew she was telling him the truth about hanging out with him, he also knew she was missing out because of him. His dad and Judy had been talking about running the Upper Gauley together for years. John had been going white water rafting in West Virginia since he was in college, and he and Judy had run the New River and Lower Gauley several times. But the Upper Gauley was the king of the Eastern white water. It only flowed high in the fall, and there were a few weeks when the rapids hit Class V and VI. There were plenty of rivers closer to them in the West, but John was nostalgic and kept coming back here where he and some college buddies first learned to raft. And these eastern rivers offered as many challenging rapids in one day as it would take two or three days to find in the West. He loved sharing it with the kids. Once they hit nine or ten, they would make the trip, first the upper New River, which was pretty family friendly, with mainly Class II and III rapids, then the lower New and Gauley as they got a couple years older. But the Upper Gauley was special. It ran through the mountains, picking up speed with the runoff from the early snow up in the Blueridge, until it slowed in the lower section and eventually met the New River a few kilometers down.

The commercial companies had stopped running a few years before as the environment worsened, and people stopped traveling so much. But that was better for John Robinson. He was experienced and the family would have the river to themselves this time of year. John was scheduled to leave for deployment after the weekend, and didn’t know when he would be back.

They had decided to run the Upper Gauley as a family. They were all experienced rafters except for Will, so John wasn’t worried. They all watched over the youngest anyway. But the day before, they stood on an overlook above the hardest section, Sweet’s Falls, and Will was speechless.

“It’ll be fine,” John said to his son, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll watch you, Will,” Maureen said. She had been rafting with John since before they were married and liked it as much as he did. “You’ll be right between me and your dad.”

But Judy saw Will’s face and knew. If he did it, it was just to make them happy. “Hey, I haven’t been feeling too well,” She said. “Not sure I’m up for that this weekend. How bout Will and I take the kayak and do the Upper New down to camp, then see you guys when you’re done?”

“Judy!” Will said. “I’m OK.”

“Yeah but I’m not.”

They were all looking at her. They knew she was lying. She had been talking about this for months.

“What’s wrong with you?” Will asked. His voice showed he didn’t believe her.

“Will, you have two sisters,” Judy said. “You’re gonna learn not to ask that question. But I promise if you ask again, I’m going to tell you.”

Penny snickered and John and Maureen smiled at each other, trying not to laugh.

“OK. I’m not gonna ask,” Will said. His face was red. “But…”

“Cool. Thanks Will. I really was hoping you would let me out of it.” She put a hand on his neck and turned him away from the river, winking at her mom and dad.

Will climbed inside the inflatable, taking the front seat. Judy pushed off and took the back. She would be responsible for guiding. Will had been kayaking in lakes before and calm streams when the family went on one of their many camping trips, but this water was much swifter, and while it wouldn’t get more than a Class II rapids, maybe a III today, the kayak would still give them a great ride. The rest of the family would be in the large inflatable raft.

Judy taught Will how to paddle into the wake as waves came against the boat, trying to dig his paddle into the center of it just as it reached the front of the kayak, helping propel them through the rough water. Once they hit the first set of rapids, a I or possibly Class II today, he was thoroughly enjoying himself. By the third rapids they came to, both Will and Judy were screaming out in excitement as they rode the waves, water soaking them to the core. Will was hooked.  
.  
Judy had, in fact, been disappointed about missing the Upper Gauley ride, but watching her little brother’s pure joy more than made up for it, and she smiled at the excitement he was showing.

In between rapids, they floated through the canyons, watching the beautiful scenery of the West Virginia Blueridge mountains, spotting the occasional bald eagle. They were pretty much extinct out West.

At midday, they came to another set of Class II rapids, and as they came through them, Judy said, “Hey Will, want to surf?”

He turned his head to look at her. “Surf?”

“Yeah, we can surf on the kayak, want to see?”

“OK,” he answered. He wasn’t sure what she meant, but so far this had been one of his favorite days in his almost nine years of living and he was up for anything.

Judy had noticed the whirlpool created by a huge rock at the end of the last rapids. When she went rafting with her father they were always looking for a place in the river just like it. She guided the kayak back around and they approached the whirlpool from the side. As they glided over it, the small rubber craft was caught, and it rode atop the swirling water that poured over the rock. Judy kept her paddle in the water, but had stopped stroking, and the kayak remained in place, rocking back and forth.

Will turned and looked at his sister with a huge grin on his face. “This is so cool!” He yelled. Then he raised both hands and shouted, “Whooo!”

“No, Will!” But in a flash he was head first into the rushing river as his balance shifted, tilting the kayak and causing Judy to fall out the other side.

Will had a life jacket on, and he had listened closely to his father’s instructions in case he went overboard. He knew to keep his feet up and in front of him, resting his head on the back of the life jacket and floating on his back. This was a relatively safe river, and they would jump out and float some of the smaller rapids. The only real danger was getting your foot caught in the rocks and being pulled under. That’s why it was important to keep your feet up.

But Will went under as soon as he hit the water and panicked. He tried to get his feet under him to push off the bottom, but his right foot wedged between two rocks and he was stuck. His head was almost under the surface, and by tilting his face up, he was just able to catch a breath, but the rushing waves splashed over him, causing him to swallow water and cough as he tried to breath.

Judy saw him go under, but she was too far away to grab him. She knew to swim at an angle toward the bank to keep from being pulled down the river, and she was quickly out of the middle of the stream, then looked back. She could see Will’s arms flailing above the water, and his face tilted up as he struggled to breath, but could tell he was swallowing water as the waves washed over his face.

“Hold on Will!” She screamed, not knowing if he could hear her. She swam back up stream a little way so the river could pull her back toward her brother, then turned and furiously stroked back toward the center. She grabbed Will and wrapped her arms around his torso, holding herself in place while she tried to tug his body free. His eyes were open, and she saw the panic in them. She couldn’t pull him free, so she dove, grabbing his legs and using them to pull herself to the bottom until she found where his foot was trapped. She turned his foot, while prying at one of the rocks and he popped free, then floated on down the river. She swam after him and stretched out a hand until she managed to grab the back of his life jacket, then pulled him out of the fast water to the side.

She dragged him up a rocky beach and yelled, “Are you OK, Will! Are you OK!” She was holding his face in both her hands.

He was still scared, but seeing how frightened Judy was made him want to comfort her. “I’m OK, Judy. I’m OK. You got me.”

“Oh Will I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” She was shaking and crying at the same time. She was still clutching her brother’s face in both hands.

“Its OK Judy. I’m not hurt.” She couldn’t stop shaking and he wrapped his arms around her and held her. “Judy, I’m fine.” She was crying uncontrollable. “Judy, I’m OK.”

“God I can’t believe I did that Will,” She couldn’t stop crying and shaking.

“It was my fault; I was stupid and fell overboard.”

“No, we didn’t have to surf that hole. I’m so fucking stupid, Will. I’m sorry.”

“Its OK Judy, nothing happened.”

She pushed back and looked at her brother’s face for a second, then grabbed him in a hug again. “That was so stupid. I’m such an idiot.”

They sat for a long time. Judy didn’t want to let go of him. It took a while before she stopped shaking. Finally she said, “We better go see if we can find the kayak.” She stood and offered her hand and helped pull Will up.

They started walking along the rocky beach, but she saw Will was limping. “Will, let me see your ankle.”

“It’s OK, Judy, it just got twisted in the rocks. I did everything wrong. If I had just kept my feet up it would have been fine, but I panicked.”

“None of it was your fault, Will.” She put an arm around him and helped him walk.

It turned out they only had a kilometer to walk along the bank before they came across the empty kayak stuck under a limb. Judy waded out and freed it and brought it back to where her brother was waiting.

“Do you want to get back in Will? It will take a long time if we walk all the way.”

“Yeah, can we…”

“I’ll stay near the bank.”

“Thanks, I’m ruining your whole trip.”

“You’re not ruining anything, Will.”

A couple hours later, they beached the Kayak next to their campground. Judy sat next to Will, both of them in camping chairs. She kept her hand on his arm, like she didn’t want to let him go. Then they heard the SUV pull up, bringing the family back from their day on the Upper Gauley.

Will saw Judy sigh when they heard the engine coming through the woods. “I’ve got to talk to Dad about it.”

She stood and Will grabbed her wrist. “Judy, don’t tell him.”

“I have to, Will.”

He stood and looked at her. “No you don’t. No one will ever know but us. We keep our secrets. OK?”

“Will…”

“We keep our secrets, Judy.” He turned and walked to meet the family. Judy saw him do his best to walk without a limp.

She loved him so much in that moment. “Will.” He turned and looked at her. “Thank you.”

“Nothing to thank me for, Judy. We keep our secrets.” It would become the motto over the years between the two of them.

That night as they sat around the campfire, John began one of his “true” ghost stories that he always made up for whatever area they were camping in. This one was about a haunted coal mine.

Will sat and looked around the fire, as the sounds of the rushing river echoed down the canyon. He was filled with a sense of elation. He was safe, surrounded by the people who loved him unconditionally, and he was alive. At that moment, his eight year old mind understood something that few children his age ever fully grasped. That life was fleeting, and every minute was a gift.

He looked around at his family, illuminated in the darkness by the flickering flames of the campfire. John had a serious look on his face as he spoke softly of the haunted mine and the ghosts of trapped coal miners, forever cursed to walk the forests and hills that surrounded them. Penny’s face was riveted on her father’s, as was his mother’s, though she had a slight smile. When he looked at Judy, he saw she was staring intently at him. Their eyes met. Then she smiled. He smiled back, the two of them sharing a moment. Will was happy.


	2. Chapter 2

“Behold! It is not over unknown seas, but back over well-known years that your quest must go; back to the bright strange things of infancy and the quick sun-drenched glimpses of magic that old scenes brought to wide young eyes.”  
\- H. P. Lovecraft

Part I: The Pain of Lost Things

Maureen knocked on her door again. This was the second time. She had knocked earlier but Penny had ignored her before and fully intended to again. The last time might have been hours ago. Hell maybe this was the third time. Penny had nowhere to be. No work. No school. Bed was just fine. Maybe it was early morning. Maybe it was late afternoon. There was nothing waiting for her “out there.” She kept her eyes tightly closed, waiting for her mother to go away.

They had brought the Jupiter 2 from the mountains where Judy and Will had landed it when they returned to the Amber Planet looking for Penny. Once they found out that the Intelligence Agency had moved in to the old Fortuna military compound on the north side of the city, they knew they wanted to be close. The city was ten kilometers south. They were in the middle of a field, the forest a hundred meters or so behind them. They wanted a visual of everything around the ship. The barrier fence surrounded it. They had no reason to expect an attack, especially since Will was working for IA, but they were taking no chances. Will still had more enemies on the planet than he had friends.

Penny woke again. She tried to convince herself to open her eyes. She was losing the argument. She rarely got a full night’s sleep anyway. She constantly dreamed of being in dark woods, surrounded by gray shapes hidden back in the trees. She could hear them moving. They were getting closer and closer, but she couldn’t see them. They were shadows. That was the worst part. The fear of not knowing was overpowering. The wait. Just let it happen, she would think. Whatever “it” was. Someone had handed her a laser pistol and she just stared at it, thinking, I can’t kill anyone. Then suddenly she was firing over and over again into the screaming hordes as they ran through the trees. She saw the explosions and their chests ripped open. They were animalistic in their attack, but utterly human when they died.

Maybe it was death, made people human, she thought. The fear and uncertainty in the moment that you know all you have ever been has come to an end. Some of them would look down at a burning hole in their flesh, a look of disbelief on their face. Some of them would look directly at her. Meet her eyes with theirs. There was never hatred in these looks. Only fear and pleading: Help me. Tell me I’m not dying. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Penny pulled a pillow up around her face, squeezed it tightly and screamed into it. After a while she fell back to sleep.

She was hot. And terribly thirsty. The sun was beating down on her. She was dying. But she didn’t care. She suddenly realized she was awake and opened her eyes. Her face was buried in her pillow. Now she thought of her stream of consciousness dream when she was atop the sand dune. She had begun calling it her desert dream. Three dreams actually, all running together. Of her childhood with her brother and sister, and a dream of the future. An ancient city on an unknown world. That dream both frightened and intrigued her. Judy and Will, rescuing her from a band of outlaws, then the three of them running through a busy cobblestone paved thoroughfare. She should write about it. She would sit up, find her journal and start jotting down ideas. Then…fuck it. She rolled over and faced the wall, closed her eyes again.

“Penny?”

“Go away!”

“Penny?” The voice called again. A quiet voice. A concerned voice.

“Go. The. Fuck. Away!”

Knob turns. Door creaks. Light footsteps. Weight on the bed. Jesus. Why can’t she just leave me the hell alone?

A soft hand on her arm. “Penny.” The voice gentle. The voice male.

Her eyes flew open. She had forgotten. She quickly rolled toward her brother. She looked up at him, pulled him down and buried her face in his neck. She cried.

Will laid down beside her and held her. It was a role reversal for him. She had been comforting him for as long as he could remember. Coming into his room when he was a small child, waking up from a bad dream. She would lie beside him until he fell back to sleep, and often she would just spend the rest of the night there. On the Resolute, when they had decided the children would be split up, she had laid down beside him and put her arm around him and they fell asleep that way. Of course Will knew he was going to give himself up to the robots then, but she didn’t. Then on Alpha Centauri, when he would have nightmares of some of the things that had happened to him on the Amber Planet. She would come in, wake him, hold his hand until he fell back to sleep. She would never tell anyone. He was older then. Thirteen. She knew he would be embarrassed, so she never said a word.

Will held his sister and let her cry. Neither of them spoke for a long time. Finally she said, “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too Penny.” It was the worst part of being gone. The two of them had always been close, but had grown so much closer on Alpha Centauri when she was his only friend and protector and the rest of the family was off doing what they did.

Penny had stopped crying, but Will could tell she was in no hurry to move. Finally he said, “you want to go see Judy?”

“Not yet. I just want to stay here with you for a while.”

“As long as you want, Penny.”

Her head was against his chest now, and her arms were around him. His chin rested on top of her head. He felt her warm breath on him. He remembered Judy holding him like this when she found him after seven months. He hadn’t wanted to move. He just wanted to know she was there. He knew that’s what Penny was feeling now. He was OK with that. He had been gone six weeks and had missed her as much as she had missed him. So he just held her.

Finally, she pulled away and looked at him. She was starting to see the man that he would one day be when she looked at his face. Though at fourteen he was still so much the little boy. She smiled. For the first time since he left, she smiled. “It finally feels right again,” she said.

“When the stars were right, they could plunge from world to world through the sky,” he quoted.

“But when the stars were wrong, they could not live,” she quoted back.

It was a game they played. Both avid readers with heads full of useless information, they would speak in quotes, an unspoken challenge to the other to finish the line.

Will smiled, pleased that she knew it.

“You’ve been sampling the Great Dreamer,” she said.

“Yeah. Lots of time on my hands,” he responded. “I basically wait around, take them through the rift, wait around some more. But what about you, Penny? Mom says you’re spending a lot of time here.”

“Here as in bed?” She asked. “You’re not going to judge me too, are you, Will?”

He heard the disappointment in his sister’s voice and gave her a reassuring smile. “You know better, Penny. You were my whole life on Alpha Centauri and you never judged me. You were the only one who didn’t. I would never judge you. I just thought you might want to talk about it.”

She rolled over on her back. “I’m sorry Will. I know you wouldn’t.”

He turned to his back as well and put his arm under her neck, and she slid over till her head rested against his shoulder.

They both looked up at the ceiling, comforted in their closeness. “When you’re a kid, you’re always waiting around for something, Will. Growing up. Going to college. Choosing a career. Falling in love. Having sex. Not necessarily in that order. But you know what I mean. So what happens when you’re not waiting for any of that? I mean, I only wait for one thing. Having you and Judy back. So I wake up and look at the ceiling and just ask myself, what is there to get out of bed for? I mean, you went through the same thing, didn’t you? On Alpha Centauri? You didn’t care about your grades, about school, about anything.”

He didn’t answer for a while, then said, “Yeah. That’s exactly how I felt. Like, what’s the point? I knew that none of that really mattered, because whatever was happening to me was going to follow me. I couldn’t really explain that to anyone. I mean, except for you. Mom and Dad and Judy just thought I could get on with my life and I would be better. But I knew that wouldn’t happen. And I guess you did too.”

“Yeah. The thing is, I could see your pain and I couldn’t do anything to fix it. I felt so helpless.”

“But you did, Penny. You have no idea. There were a lot of times…more than I ever want to admit, when I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I didn’t want to get up and go to school. I didn’t want to deal with all those kids every day that didn’t like me. I didn’t want to talk to doctors and therapists. I didn’t want to think about being locked in that cage for weeks all alone. I just thought about…not doing it anymore. But you know what kept making me get up and face it?”

“What?”

“Knowing that every day if I didn’t get out of bed you would walk in and really gently touch my shoulder and tell me it was time to go to school. That every day you would message me and ask how I was doing when I was in class. Every day you would be waiting for me after school to walk home with me. Knowing that you would stop at my door every night to tell me goodnight. You were the only one who knew what I was going through, and you weren’t going to let me go through it alone. So I couldn’t let you down Penny. I stopped caring what happened to me about the second month in that cage, but you never stopped caring about me. So I had to keep going. For you.”

Her eyes had teared up again and she quickly wiped them.

“So Penny. You are not going through this alone, OK? Even if I’m not on the planet, I’m thinking about you all the time and trying to get back to you. And I need to know when I get back, you will still be here and you will be OK. Understand?”

She hugged him again. “OK, Will. I understand. I’ll be OK. For you. I just…I get what you were going through better now. It’s like, that’s how I feel now too. What am I going to do? Get out of bed and walk around in the woods, then see you every six weeks? Fuck that. I just stay in bed.”

“Have you been writing?”

“What about? Day one: My brother and sister are gone. Day two: My brother and sister are still gone. Day three: My brother and sister haven’t come back.”

“I wish I could say something to make it better for you, Penny. But I know exactly how you feel.”

“What about now, Will? You don’t feel the same way? You’re IA’s slave.”

“I do feel that way, but now I’m doing something at least. I’m getting people off Earth and taking them to Alpha Centauri, so at least I have something to keep me busy in between seeing you.”

“But what about getting free? Don’t you care about that? Are you OK with things the way they are now?”

“Of course not, Penny. I’m trying to figure out how to get out of it, but I haven’t been able to yet. Penny, have you thought about going back to Alpha Centauri? Going back to school? We’re there every six weeks too. I would see you as often as I do now.”

“And our family would be scattered all over the universe, Will. Dad is going to help get the Valley back. After what Bob and Brent did for us, he thinks he has to. And mom is still looking for the secret of the robots and who made them. So she’s not going anywhere either.”

“I’m thinking about you. You have a year left of school. Maybe it would give you something to do until we figure this out. Get you…”

“What? Get me out of bed?”

“I didn’t mean that Penny. After what you did for me…”

“You don’t have to apologize to me Will. I know you care about me. I just don’t know if that makes sense right now. Going back to school. But I will think about it. Hey…thanks for letting me talk to you. Just having someone who understands and doesn’t judge really helps.”

“I’m your brother and I love you. I’ll never judge you.”

“Not to change the subject, but let’s. So…Earth. You actually went home. Tell me!”

“Well...it was different. I was really surprised how much it changed in just three years.”

She turned and looked at him. “Changed? Tell me what happened.”

“Why don’t we go see everyone? They are just going to ask me to tell the story all over again.”

“OK. Judy’s going to think I only wanted to see you if I don’t.”

She turned over and hugged Will again. “I’m so glad you’re back, Will.”

“Me too Penny.”

They stood up and Will started to walk toward the Hub, but Penny said, “Go ahead. I want to take a shower first. I’ve sorta been in bed since yesterday sometime. Or...the day before.” She gave him an embarrassed smile.

“No problem, I’ll wait for you in the Hub and we’ll tell them we fell asleep. Hey Penny, no judgement from me. Got it?”

She smiled at him and walked to the bathroom. When she turned the light on and saw herself in the mirror, she said, “I have the nicest brother in the world. He didn’t say anything about how I looked.”

She undressed, turned the water as hot as she could stand it, then stood under the jets and shut her eyes. She had to talk herself into this. She missed her sister, but she just really didn’t want to be around people. Except for Will. She would be more than happy just curling up on a couch with him and watching a movie. No boyfriend. No friends. No other family. Just the one person who could sit there and talk to her or listen to her or sit with her in silence.

She remembered the battle in the jungle, watching the warriors come through the trees. Someone had handed her a laser pistol. Judy or Nin, maybe? She couldn’t remember. But she had looked down at it thinking there was no way she could kill someone. Then she saw one of them club Will in the head, and she went berserk, running into the fight, kneeling over his unconscious body, one hand on his chest, while she fired over and over again.

She had no idea how many people she had ended up killing. But she knew one of them had been a boy not much older than Will. She remembered the look in his eyes. She could tell in that look that he knew she had killed him. She had never seen such fear and loss in anyone’s eyes before. She told herself it wasn’t her fault. He was a warrior; had been raised that way. But when she shot him he was nothing more than a frightened boy. A frightened boy knowing he was going to die. Knowing that every dream he ever had was never going to come true. She had done that. “Stop!” She yelled to herself and turned the water off.

Penny walked to the Hub and smiled at Will, who was sitting, patiently waiting for her. The two of them walked out and down the ramp to where the family was gathered around a fire. It got cool in the evening and John had started building a fire at night and he and Maureen would hang out here instead of sitting in the Hub. Occasionally they could coax Penny out to join them for a while, but she would normally just stay a few minutes then go back inside. A lot of people would be here the next night to see Will so John had brought a lot of chairs out.

Judy saw her and smiled and stood up and walked to her and the two of them hugged. “I thought you didn’t want to see me,” Judy said.

“I’m sorry. We fell asleep then I wanted to take a shower.” The two of them turned and walked back to the others. Will had walked on and taken a chair next to his mother.

“Don!” She had forgotten he was going to be there.

Don stood up and hugged her. “Yeah Judy and I were starting to feel like red headed step children. No offense.”

“Who’s that?” Penny asked. She was looking out in the field. A Jeep was parked fifty meters or so away, and she could see two men sitting in it.

“My shadows,” Will said. “They follow me everywhere.”

“Jesus,” she said.

“They’re just doing their jobs, Penny. It’s not their fault,” he said.

“If you had your way everything would be your fault and everyone else would be innocent, little brother.” She rubbed his hair as she took a seat next to Judy.

“Will was just about to tell us about going back to Earth,” Maureen said.

Penny looked at her brother, then at Judy. Judy was just looking at the fire and Penny could tell she wasn’t too pleased.

“I want to hear everything Will,” Penny said.

“OK,” he said, but he was quiet for a while, thinking about his trip back home and wondering what it meant.


	3. Chapter 3

It was their third and final pick up. The Resolute 2 had come back to Earth two weeks earlier. The ship was huge, it’s passenger capacity more than twice that of the original Resolute. It was in orbit now. Their first pick up was in Philadelphia, when the transports landed at a base near Valley Forge, and four hundred colonists boarded and were brought back to the Resolute 2. Next was at Scott Air Force base in the middle of the corn fields in Illinois near St. Louis, and another four hundred colonists were processed, then loaded aboard the transport.

This final stop was in Southern California at Los Alamitos, the joint military base. This was the first time Will had transported to the planet. Judy wanted to take him to the medical facility at the base. His headaches seemed to be getting worse, and he was blacking out more often, and he had not had a complete examination since he and Judy left Alpha Centauri to try and find Penny on the Amber Planet.

They would be here for three days, load another four hundred passengers, then head for Alpha Centauri. A week there, then back to the Amber Planet. And finally they would get to see the family. Will especially missed Penny. They had become so close on Alpha Centauri. She had become his best friend, his protector, and his biggest supporter. When everyone else doubted him, Penny was always there. Now it had been a month since he had seen her, and he felt like part of him was missing.

Judy had ridden with him in the transport to the military base, where she and Will spent the next day at the medical facility. They were met by a team of doctors who just talked to the two of them for a couple of hours in a conference room. It might have been the first time Judy realized how important her brother was to them. With Will, they didn’t need a robot for navigation or to create the rift. They had one captured robot that Hastings and IA had used to get to the Amber planet when they captured Will and Judy, and they had Will. They used Will for the Resolute 2, and had planned to use the captured robot for the original Resolute once the ship had been fully repaired and passed inspection. But the robot had been so badly damaged, they now were uncertain that it could be used for more than a few trips.

And, Judy knew, they had watched Will control a whole army of robots. It didn’t matter how many robots they had; he was invaluable to them. At least until they were able to control them without him. Then he may not be needed any longer. Something she was always aware of.

After the conference, the doctors asked Judy to go to a waiting room.

“No,” she answered.

“What do you mean, no?” One of the doctors asked. He was obviously military, and seemed to be in charge.

“No. I mean, I don’t know how to explain it any better than that. I know more about his health than anyone. I’m not leaving him. And, I want to see the results of every test.”

“You don’t get to make these decisions,” The doctor said.

“Sure she does,” Will said. He didn’t need to say more. They all knew how important he was, and while they could control him as long as Judy was in custody, they also knew there were some battles that weren’t worth fighting.

They performed a full body CT scan, a brain scan, an EKG and EEG, and took a lot of blood samples. Then they gave him a series of psychological examinations. Judy watched him on a monitor with two of the doctors as he completed several questionnaires.

Judy was especially interested in seeing the results of the CT scan and the brain scan. But when she met with the Chief Medical Officer at the end of the day and another doctor, and they showed her the images, everything was normal.

“I don’t believe it,” Judy said. Will was in another room, getting dressed.

“What did you expect to see?” Dr. Phillips asked. He was the Chief Medical Officer.

“I think they did something. The scars on his temples. And they were scanning him for readings before.”

The door opened, and her brother was standing there. Doctor Phillips looked up at him and said, “Will, do you mind waiting in the next room for a few minutes?”

“If there’s something wrong with me, I want to know.”

“Will, it’s alright,” Judy said. “You know I will fill you in on everything.”

“OK,” He turned and walked back in the other room. He trusted his sister completely.

“Judy, there is nothing physically wrong with him,” Dr. Phillips said after the boy left. “We have done every test we can do. But, he suffers from an extreme case of PTSD, and frankly, I’m concerned about psychosis.”

“No way,” Judy said emphatically.

“Look.” The doctor opened a folder that the female doctor, Dr. Terrel, handed to him. He took out several pages and turned them to Judy to look at.

“Standard psychologically examination. He is in one of the highest risk categories I have ever seen for a complete psychological breakdown.”

The doctor pointed at the list of questions with the answers Will had filled in that morning: “Hears voices. Sees things other people don’t see. People have a hard time understanding what he is saying sometimes. Has beliefs that others would think are bizarre. Feels that other people are watching him, talking about him. Paranoia. Believes that other people think he has some type of unusual abilities.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a clearer picture of borderline psychosis.”

“But these things _are_ happening to him. That’s why he answered that way,” she protested.

“Judy, you’re a doctor. Listen to what you just said. Let me ask you a question. Other than the connection with the robots, how much of what he has said to you have you actually witnessed?”

“Well, I saw the cage, and his friend…girlfriend…confirmed they kept him in it for several weeks.”

“I’m not questioning that. It is probably what caused the PTSD.” Neither Judy nor Will had told them everything about the Haja, what they were going to do to him, and the poison. But they did tell them about the cage and the isolation. Will hadn’t wanted to, but she had insisted.

“Look, you will be here next month,” Dr. Phillips said. “I’m going to tell you some things to pay attention to until then. You bring him back, and we will sit down and see where we are. But you need to do something. When he talks to you about one of these experiences, have a discerning ear. Don’t assume everything he is telling you is factual. And challenge him. Especially if you see any signs of paranoia, conspiracy theories—anything like that.”

“Will wouldn’t lie to me,” She said.

“No. I don’t believe he would. But if he is suffering from psychosis, he doesn’t know he’s lying.”

“Well, I don’t think there is any question about his abilities with the robots,” She said.

“True, but we don’t understand the robots and don’t know who made them. How do we know that they aren’t using your brother for some purpose that we know nothing about?”

“But what about the scars on his temples?”

“Perfectly dime shaped,” The doctor replied.

“What are you saying? He did it to himself?”

“If you don’t think that’s possible, you aren’t listening with a discerning ear. You need to put your doctor hat on and take your sister hat off when it comes to Will and his health.”

“That will never happen.”

“Maybe not, but that’s the reason medical professionals should never treat their own family, especially when it comes to mental health issues. If you want to help your brother, you need to stay neutral about everything he is telling you, and try to pick the stories apart. Often, when a patient who is suffering from psychosis is forced to look at his own reality, he finds it isn’t always what he thinks it is. That’s the first step to recovery, or at least to finding a way to live with the diagnosis. Meanwhile, he needs to be on antipsychotics. I assume you have access.”

“Yes, I can prescribe him something and get medication from the clinic on board.”

They stood up and walked in to the next room where Will was sitting on a sofa, looking at a magazine. He looked up and smiled. “This Sports Illustrated is like, two years old,” Will said.

“Yeah, that was pretty much the last season of football and baseball,” the female doctor, Dr. Terrell said. “Basketball went another season, but it’s all over now. You guys haven’t gotten much news from Earth since you’ve been gone, have you?”

“OK,” Dr. Phillips said, seeming to interrupt whatever it was that Dr. Terrell was going to say.

Judy walked up and put her hand on the back of Will’s neck. “Feel OK?”

“Yeah, so what are you guys talking about? How crazy I am?” When there was nothing but silence, he said, “I’m kidding. Or, am I crazy?”

“No, Will, you’re not crazy,” Judy said. “But since we are going to be back here every six weeks, we’re going to keep bringing you here for a while. See if we can figure out your headaches and why you keep blacking out.”

Will stood up. “Thank you Doctor Phillips and Doctor Terrell.” He shook their hands and he and Judy walked out of the room and down the hall. They pulled their face masks up and stepped outside, where a guard was waiting for them.

They walked toward the base, which was across the parking lot. They would spend the night and the next afternoon, then transport back to the Resolute 2 with the 25th Colonist group. When the Resolute disappeared and they lost Scarecrow, the trips had stopped. Everyone was excited that they were back on. The colonists were in the processing center now, and were staying in the barracks. Will and Judy had a room in the administration building with the officers. Armed guards were with Will at all times.

“No one said the air had gotten this bad,” Judy said as they walked toward the barracks.

“I think it’s worse than that,” Will said. “Did you see how Dr. Phillips stopped Dr. Terrel from talking when she was saying there were no more professional sports?”

“No, I didn’t notice,” She said. Then she remembered what Dr. Phillips had said. “I’m not sure she meant anything by it, Will. Let’s not look for dragons where they don’t exist.”

Will looked at her, annoyed. He started to argue with her, but decided against it. She would be pissed at him enough tomorrow the way it was.

“You should have died in the river, Will. I should never have pulled you out.” The anguish in Judy’s voice was matched only by her anger.

“I know, Judy. I wish you hadn’t. I really wish you hadn’t.” His voice was sad. Resigned.

Will’s eyes flew open. He was shaking. The dream had seemed so real. They had been in a small dark chamber, just the two of them. And it was more than anguish and anger in his sister’s voice. It was venom. It was hatred. He shook his head. He wanted to forget it. Of all the things that had happened to him the last two years, the dream scared him more than anything. Then he remembered where he was.

He looked at Judy, asleep on a cot on the other side of the small room. He thought maybe he had the dream because he knew if she caught him today she would be so angry. But she wouldn’t hate him. He couldn’t ever imagine that.

He watched her breath slowly for a few minutes. She had given up everything in her life for him. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint her. Still, he was only going to be gone a couple hours. And he just had to do this.

He crawled out of bed as quietly as he could and started getting dressed.

“Where are you going?” Judy asked.

“Sorry, I tried to be quiet. I’m just walking around the base. Don’t worry, the guard is going to be like, a meter from me all the time. Want me to bring you a coffee first?”

“I would forever love my little brother if he did that,” she said as she stretched and yawned.

He looked at her for a few seconds. “You will, won’t you? Love me forever?”

“You don’t have to ask that little brother. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He smiled at her. “Be right back.”

He returned in a few minutes with a tall cup and some creamers in his hand. She was out of bed and dressed. “Thanks Will. Hey, check in with me in an hour or so.”

“Will do.” They hugged, then he left and headed down the hall, but instead of walking to the door where he knew the guard would be standing, he turned the other way and went into the bathroom. He locked the door behind him, pulled the trash can to the window, climbed on top of it and slid the window open. He stuck his head out. There was nothing behind the building except trash cans and a dumpster.

He pulled himself up and squeezed through the window then dropped to the ground. He walked from the back of the building and toward the shipping area, taking his time, trying not to look suspicious. Most of the people on the base wouldn’t know him, he just needed to avoid anyone from the Resolute 2.

Once in cargo, there was a flurry of activity as they were provisioning the Resolute 2 for the trip to Alpha Centauri. He walked by the workers as they unloaded trailers, heading toward the end of the docks and looking for Chariot J34. The cargo trailer should already be unloaded and ready to head back to the port for a second run. He found the vehicle, discovered the rear door was left ajar, climbed inside and pulled a tarp over himself and waited.

In about twenty minutes he heard the door open and shut and the Chariot started. “Will?” The driver whispered.

“I’m here,” he said back.

“OK, sit tight, when we’re through the gate I’ll give you the all clear.”

Once on the freeway, Will sat up and leaned forward. Home. It had been three years since he had been here. But it was different. The 605 was almost abandoned. Will had never seen the Freeway so empty.

“Where is everyone?” Will asked the young man driving. Sonny was just eighteen and the two of them hit it off with their mutual interest in books and video games.

“Lots of changes the last couple of years. I guess they didn’t tell you. You better ask someone back at base. I don’t really know that much. Just a lot of trouble out here.”

“Is that why they use the Chariots for resupply, Sonny?”

“Yeah. Last year the Union shut down shipping when the checks stopped coming. They occupied the whole port. Military pushed them out, so they fucked up just about every cargo vehicle in twenty kilometers. They were using military vehicles to supply the base, then, when they got the word the Alpha program was back on, something happened with them too. No one ever knew what, but they moved out, took their trucks with them and stopped the supply chain. Lot of politics above my pay grade, but seems the Resolute project and Alpha Mission Control is all IA now. I think there was a power struggle between IA and the military, but the government is too weak to intervene, and the military is all top down. Without any real direction, IA kinda filled the holes. IA controls everything, even who goes to Alpha Centauri, so now IA runs the port. Three weeks ago, before the Resolute was scheduled to arrive, barges came in from Ensenada, Mexico to supply the MREs to feed everyone. Looks like the government just washed their hands of the whole space program. So we get supplies from Mexico, use the Chariots and cargo containers to transport everything to the base.”

“So the three bases we landed at are all IA?” Will asked.

“Yep. IA’s got their own military force now. Not a ton of soldiers but they have the best technology and they’re growing in numbers. Probably could put five, six thousand in the field if they had to. All of them out here. Took over the old Naval Base in San Diego. Still some regular military like me at the bases and the port, but we’re outnumbered by IA.”

Will remembered the three hundred men that Hastings took to the Amber planet to arrest him and Judy. “Things have changed a lot since we left,” Will said. “Where did the Navy go when they left San Diego?” His dad had been stationed there when he wasn’t deployed.

“What Navy? This world is just trying to hang on, now. Not much left of the military, what is went back East. IA’s filling the gap. I think they want to carve out their own little world, out here in the West.”

Will was thinking about what he said when they pulled up to the abandoned gas station.

“OK, here is good enough,” Will said.

“You sure?” I can take you a little closer,” Sonny said.

“No, I want to walk.”

Sonny pulled the Chariot over.

“OK, you have two hours. Then meet me right here.” He reached behind his seat and handed Will a gas mask. “Take it with you, just in case. And…a hundred, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” Will lifted his wrist radio, typed in to it. “Done,” he said.

“I didn’t mean you had to send it now, I was just clarifying.”

“You said one hundred credits. Now if I don’t come back at least you have the credits.”

“If you don’t come back, the credits aren’t going to do me a bit of good. I will be court martialed and put in the brig for twenty years.” He paused. “I’m talking myself out of this. If they found out I did this, I’m dead.”

Will lifted his wrist, typed into it again. “Two hundred.” They didn’t pay Will much for his “services,” but what they did, he had nothing to spend it on anyway.

“No, I wasn’t asking for more, I’m thinking it wasn’t a good idea at all.”

Will opened the door and climbed out. “Too late. We’re already here.”

Sonny sighed, “Two hours!”

Will waved and walked down the road. He clipped the gas mask to his belt, then brought his face mask up over his mouth and nose. They had told him things were worse, but Will hadn’t been ready for this. As the boy walked down a street he hadn’t been on in three years, this part of the city seemed empty.

He couldn’t believe how bad the air quality had become. The smog and dust that used to burn off in the mid-morning sun, now hung over the city like a thick, orange fog. He had visibility for maybe four blocks, but it was almost impossible to see anything further than that. He would occasionally hear a car speeding down a road in the distance, but it would not be visible in the heavy air.


	4. Chapter 4

Will walked through the abandoned streets, turned the corner at twelfth, and his old grade school was in front of him at the end of the block. He felt nervous as he walked, and couldn’t explain why. He had become incredibly nostalgic in the last year. He had always been deep, often feeling much older than his years. But he had always looked forward, the list of things he planned to do in his life growing with every book he read or movie he watched.

But now he was fatalistic. After all he had been through, he didn’t think he would live to be much older than he was now, and it had made him much more nostalgic for the people and places of his past. He assumed it was not much different than any person as they stared down the narrowing tunnel of their own mortality. He remembered his grandfather, John’s dad, telling story after story of his childhood in his final years.

The school was closed. It was a Wednesday morning in September. Will couldn’t figure why the school would be closed. He had been in a hurry as he walked, knowing he had to meet Sonny at the gas station in two hours. But now he began looking around. He could still hear an occasional car engine off in the distance, but that was it. He now noticed that the houses were all quiet. They didn’t look empty necessarily, but no one was around. No one in any of the yards. No one looking out the windows.

He walked across the grass in front of the school. There were two concrete bases beside the steps leading to the front door. He remembered sitting on them so many times waiting for Penny to get out of class, or for Judy to come get him from her middle school. He walked up the steps and tried the doors. They were locked. He looked through the reinforced wired glass, but the hallway was dark.

He turned and walked around the school to the playground. There was the bench he would always sit on if his mother was going to pick him up. He remembered Judy running around the corner in the rain, frantic, and finding him lying on the bench waiting for her the time she had forgotten him. He thought about how that memory had hurt him, but also probably saved his life when he was in the cage on the Amber planet.

He walked between the playground and the school until he was half way to the end of the building, then he stopped and looked through the window, cupping his hands around his eyes to block the glare. This was his sixth grade classroom. The last grade he had attended before leaving for Alpha Centauri with his family.

His seat was in the back row. He always chose the back row If he could. They already made fun of him because he was so smart. The last thing he wanted was to sit anywhere near the teacher and have them say he was sucking up.

He glanced around the room, remembering. Back then, all he wanted to do was leave. Now, it was different. He would give anything to go back. Sit in the classroom watching the time on his wrist radio as it moved so slow. This time of day he would be playing a mind game with himself. Pretending it was only fifteen minutes to lunch when it was almost two hours. Then, when the fifteen minutes was up, he would start all over again. Telling himself it was almost lunch time seemed to make the time go faster. “I guess I’ve been swallowing my demons forever,” he said aloud. “Even the little ones.”

He could tell now that there had been no school here since at least the previous year. There were no papers or books anywhere. All the desks were bare including the teacher’s large desk in the front of the room. School should have started a month ago. “What’s going on?” He said aloud.

He turned and walked back to the front of the school, crossed two blocks over and headed toward the park. Three blocks in front of him he saw an old SUV crossing a street and speeding through an alley.

“Well, they’re not all gone,” he said. But as he walked through the neighborhood, the houses still seemed empty.

The park was overgrown. It looked like no one had cut the grass all summer, with weeds beginning to take over. He walked through the tall grass to the tennis courts. The courts were unkempt. The nets were up, but looked weathered and a little frayed. Grass was beginning to grow over the perimeter, and a couple of cracks in the asphalt had grass sprouting up through them.

It was just a small neighborhood park, and Will knew every inch of it. He walked toward the dog run. His sisters had always wanted a dog, but Will was deathly afraid of them after being attacked when he was six.

He thought of Jerry, and he had a deep longing to be back on the Amber planet in the Valley, lying in the hammock by Bob’s cabin, Nin and Bob at the top of the steps playing music while Will listened and absently stroked Jerry’s fur, the huge animal lying beneath the hammock.

“Jesus, I’m crazy,” he said aloud to himself. He could never seem to shake the nostalgia, the longing for another time when things seemed so much easier, his choices simpler.

He walked toward the corner of the park and sat on the bench that he and Penny spent so much time on, drinking root beer floats. It was at the edge, near the Dairy Bar. The green paint was beginning to peel off the bench. He looked back at the park, overgrown and neglected, the heavy orange air covering it and making it look like he was in an eerie horror movie. He was deeply sad, looking at his past. He was beginning to think this stroll through his personal time tunnel might be a bad idea.

He stood and walked toward the Dairy Bar. When he was five or six, this was the hang out. There would be tennis tournaments during the summer, and cars would be parked all around the exterior of the park after the small lot had filled. There would always be a line at the window of the Dairy Bar in those days. All that had changed as he moved into grade school and then middle school. People still came to the park, but it wasn’t like before, and as the air grew worse, fewer and fewer people would come here, especially at night. But the Dairy Bar was the one constant. Always here. Always open. But not now, he could see.

Other than the gas station where Sonny had dropped him off, this was the only business he had seen, as everything was residential here. But he could see the old sign out front with the swirled ice cream cone wasn’t lit. It used to be on, night and day. There was a side window he could see through, but it was dark inside.

Still, he walked toward the tiny red and white building, deciding to look in the window one last time. As he walked around the corner to the front he heard, “Will Robinson. Where have you been?”

The old, cracked voice startled him, but then Mrs. Livingston leaned through the take-out window into the light. He hadn’t been able to see her in the dark building.

“Mrs. Livingston!” He was so happy to see someone from his past. “How are you?” He leaned close to the window, but stopped when he caught the sower smell from inside.

The old woman leaned her head out the window. She couldn’t be more than sixty year old, but she looked ancient. Her hair was completely white, and there were bald patches, as if she had been pulling it out by the handful. Her dress was ragged. They used to always laugh because every day she wore a dress to the little ice cream shop and it always looked like she was going to work in an office building downtown. But now the dress looked like it should have been thrown away a couple of years ago.

“I’m great boy!” She answered, then a cackled laugh rattled from her throat, and turned in to a cough. Will could smell sour breath, even though he had stopped a meter from the window. “Been waiting for the kids to come back. Should a known you’d be here. Your sister with you?”

“Um, no. She’s not here,” Will was stunned by Mrs. Livingston’s appearance.

“Well she’ll be along soon,” the old woman laughed. “Judy was here this morning looking for you kids, and I told her I would send you home if you showed up.”

“Um…Judy was here?” Will asked, suddenly thinking she must have found out he was gone already.

“Yes. She was running. Said she was practicing for State. That girl’s gonna go places, Will, you mark my word.”

“Yeah. She is going to do that, Mrs. Livingstone.” He needed to get away. “Great seeing you,” he said.

“Wait a minute boy. I’m gonna make you a root beer float.” She turned to the small freezer behind her.

“No that’s ok, Mrs. Livingston,” Will said. “I don’t have any money anyway.” He didn’t think she took credits.

“On the house boy! On the house! You haven’t been here all week, so this one’s on the house.” She had opened a bottle of root beer and was pouring it in the cup. “Fountain doesn’t work Will, but bottle is just as good,” She called over her shoulder to him. She turned back to the window and pushed the cup through. Will could smell it before he reached for it.

“There you go,” She said. “Just the way you always like it. Extra ice cream.”

Will looked down in the cup to see the curdled white liquid foaming with the warm root beer. He needed to get away and get rid of it as soon as he could, but he said, “Thank you Mrs. Livingston. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure boy.”

“What happened here?” He asked.

She looked to her left down the street, then to her right, and for just a second, Will thought he saw a glimmer of clarity in her eyes. She said, “We just used it all up, I think, Will. And the ones that could went off to another world. The ones that couldn’t stayed here and pretended it was all coming back.”

She sounded so sad when she said the words. But just as quickly her voice changed, a big smile came to her face and she said, “And coming back they are! The kids will be back now once they hear you’ve been back. Tell them, Will! When you see them, tell them I’m still here and ain’t going nowhere.”

“I will Mrs. Livingston,” Will said sadly.

“And you tell Penny to get by here. Haven’t seen her all week. Don’t know what’s getting in to you kids. All of you getting in a big hurry or something.”

“Thanks Mrs. Livingston. I’ll tell her. Take it easy OK? And…thanks for everything. For all the root beer floats and ice cream cones.”

Clarity came to her eyes again and she said, “You’re welcome, Will.”

She looked down the street again. “You know, it wasn’t a bad life. Watching all you kids grow up here on my corner. It wasn’t bad at all. Get out of here now, son. It’s all over. God came and gave the world a fever, and it’s all over.” She seemed to shrink back in to the darkness of the little ice cream shop.

Will stood for a few seconds, trying to think of something else to say. Then he turned. He kept the sour drink as far away from his nose as possible as he walked to a trash can at the corner of the building. The trash was over flowing and spilling out on the ground. He carefully sat the cup on the top of the trash, then walked on down the street toward his house.

He was shaken. Mrs. Livingston had clearly lost her mind. He couldn’t imagine how quickly things had changed here. They hadn’t said anything to them before landing. Just that they couldn’t leave the base. Of course they hadn’t had any news of earth since leaving. This trip would be the first one since they had left for Alpha Centauri almost three years ago.

Will was torn between wanting to just turn around and head back to the base, or going on to see his old house. But he had only been gone an hour. Sonny wouldn’t be back by the gas station yet, and it was too far to walk to the base. He went on down the road, back past his old school, then began the three kilometer hike to his old house.

As he walked he thought about the memory that Judy had somehow sent to him when he was about to attack the city with the robots. He walked past the pine tree that they had cowered under, trying to avoid the rain. A little further, he walked past the garage that he had led them to, only to find it offered no cover from the storm.

He smiled, remembering that day again, Judy pulling him down the road by the hand, both of them laughing as the rain came down. “We thought we would live forever,” he said aloud. His mood turned sad, as it often did. He seemed to never be able to escape his own head anymore. And as he thought that, he began getting one of his headaches. He had forgotten to bring his medication. He rubbed his temples as he walked.

He turned up a small hill, then his old house was there on the right. He still hadn’t seen any signs of life other than Mrs. Livingston. His house was no different. They had donated it to a charity that would find a needy family to live there. Of course, he didn’t know if anyone had actually moved in once they left.

He opened the front gate and walked down the sidewalk, filled with emotion. He didn’t think he would ever see this place again. The porch swing was still there. It looked like it needed a coat of paint, but other than that, everything on the front porch looked like it did the day they left.

He climbed the four steps to the porch, then peered through the window. It was dark inside. He knocked, just in case. He waited, knocked again. Everything was quiet. He tried the door. It was unlocked and he pushed it open.

He was standing in the living room where he had grown up. How many hours had he spent here watching movies with his family, sitting at the table in the kitchen next to the living room? He remembered the day that Judy had thrown away her prep books for space, telling Will she would just borrow his when they came in, demonstrating her confidence in him that he would pass the tests.

It turned out she would be wrong, and it would change everything for them. She told him Robinson’s always stick together. That wasn’t true either. No matter how much they tried, forces beyond their control seemed to separate them. He thought of Penny suddenly, wondering what she was doing at that minute. It would still be two weeks before he could see her.

He walked up the stairs, turned down the hall, then pushed the door to his old bedroom open. It was just as he left it. He had hoped that whoever moved in the house would have a boy around his age, and that he would appreciate the things Will had left behind. His baseball card collection was still on the shelf across the room. His model of the Jupiter 2 was on his headboard. The star chart covered most of the ceiling. No one had touched anything. No one had moved in to the house at all.

He walked over to his window, pushed it open, looked out to the flat roof. He climbed out and crossed to the middle of the roof where he sat down, looking over his back yard. How many hours had he spent out here, usually by himself, but often with Penny or Judy, just talking, telling their dreams and secrets to each other?

He remembered Judy climbing out here when she saw him by himself one night before they left for space, encouraging him, promising him she would always be there for him. And she was. Still. She had followed him to the Amber planet and found him and saved his life. Gone back with him to find Penny. Willingly gave herself up to IA when they took him.

He looked across the back yards of his old neighbors, again wishing he could go back somehow. He was overcome with the emotions of it all. He rested his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands, felt the tears well up, then they came, and he made no attempt to stop them. He sat on the roof of the house he had grown up in and wept for all that he had left behind, all that he had lost, all that he would never find again.

“Will?” He looked up. The voice came from below. From one of the yards. He looked across the lawns. The visibility was so bad, but the voice hadn’t been far away. “Will Robinson?” He heard again.

Then, three yards away he saw a head looking over the top of a wooden privacy fence.

“Scott?”

“Will! Hey Will!” The boy climbed over the fence, dropped down and ran across the next yard. He repeated it until he climbed into Will’s backyard and he stood beneath him, looking up.

Will watched him climb over the fences, making his way to Will’s yard. Will wiped his eyes so the boy wouldn’t know he had been crying.

“What are you doing here?” The boy asked, looking up at him. “You went to space. You saved everyone on the Resolute, we heard.”

“I’m just back for a few hours. But what do you mean you heard I saved everyone on the Resolute? You mean you heard that in the last few days since the Resolute came back to Earth? When we picked up people on the East Coast?”

“No, it was last year. In school we started hearing about it. Well, before they closed the schools. They didn’t open them this year. Some girl asked me if I heard about you because she knew we lived close, and she told me. Then everyone sort of knew. The Resolute disappeared for a long time, then you saved everyone. It was a big deal cause you went to our school and all. We couldn’t believe that you…”

He stopped and Will knew he meant they couldn’t believe that scared little Will Robinson could do something like that.

“But how did you hear about it? Alpha Centauri had no contact with Earth since the Resolute disappeared. You couldn’t have heard about it.”

“So it’s true?” Scott asked.

“A lot of stuff happened Scott. I don’t know what they said. But what’s going on here?”

“What do you mean?” The boy asked.

“Where is everyone?” Will asked.

“Oh, they left. Most of them. Things got bad. Hey, can I come up?”

“Yeah,” Will said.

The boy walked around the house to go in the front door. Will sat and tried to figure out what was happening. It was over two years since the Resolute disappeared, and a year since Will left with the Robots and the Resolute went on to Alpha Centauri. Alpha was working on their Deep Space Network, but it wasn’t activated yet to communicate with Earth at such a distance. How could they have any news about what had happened?

Scott’s head appeared in his bedroom window, and the boy climbed out. Will stood and put his hand out but the boy wrapped him in his arms and hugged him. They had never been close. Actually, Scott Pointer had been one of Will’s tormentors for as long as he could remember.

The boy was three years older, and Will remembered him as being a good athlete with lots of friends and a mean streak. Will had been deathly afraid of him. But this was a different Scott Pointer. He was skinny and pale. His clothes were faded and ragged.

The boys sat on the roof. “So what happened?” Will asked.

“About a year after you left, there was some kind of incident. First a virus. Then maybe a terrorist attack they said. A dirty bomb. Most of downtown and the city was evacuated and quarantined. No one can go there now. The neighborhoods that were closer…like ours…all the people pretty much abandoned the city. Whatever the bomb was, it made the air even worse, as you can see. A lot of people died, and a lot more got sick.”

“A dirty bomb? So radiation?”

“I don’t know, but it spread fast.”

“Why did you stay, Scott?”

“My dad died. He was downtown when the virus started, and he never came back. My mom didn’t want to leave, she just wouldn’t believe that he was actually never coming back. So we are still in the house. No one else is around though. Except Old Mrs. Livingston. You should see her.”

“I did,” Will said. He noticed the boy was grinning, thinking about Mrs. Livingston. It reminded Will of the Scott he used to know. But when Will just looked back at him, Scott realized Will didn’t see anything funny in Mrs. Livingstone’s condition.

“I’m sorry, Will. It’s not funny.”

“So what are you going to do, Scott? There’s nothing here for you. You can’t even breath in this air.” Scott didn’t even wear a face mask.

“I don’t know. But I have to take care of my mom. Hey, wanna see her? She always liked you. She said she didn’t know why we weren’t friends. She said you were the nicest boy in the neighborhood.”

The boys stood up. Scott looked at Will and said, “I told my mom it was my fault we weren’t friends.”

They climbed back through the window. Scott waited as Will lingered in his old room for a few more minutes. Will knew he would never be back. Then they walked downstairs and out the front door to the street, and headed three houses down to Scott’s house.

Will couldn’t remember if he had ever been in the boy’s house. When they opened the door, he saw that there was no electricity. There were candles burning beside the dark tv and on the coffee table. Scott’s mother sat in a recliner next to the end table squinting at a book. She turned her head slowly when the boys walked in.

Will remembered she was about his mother’s age, but she looked to be twenty years older now. She was one of the nicest people in the neighborhood. Will always felt she did everything she could to make up for her son and her husband, who John had confronted once when Scott chased Will home.

“Mom,” Scott said. “You remember Will Robinson? He’s here.”

“Will? Is that you?”

“Yes Mrs. Pointer. How are you?”

She smiled at the boy. “Will Robinson. What are you doing here? I thought you went off to Alpha Centauri?” She coughed.

“I did. We had to make a quick trip back and I had a few hours and wanted to come back to the old neighborhood.”

“You’re a good boy Will. I always told Scott you were the best kid in the neighborhood. How are your sisters? They were always such good girls. Penny carried my groceries all the way home one day when my car broke down.”

“They are both good. Judy is here with me.”

“She is? Can I see her? Did you know I used to go watch her run? Even though I didn’t have any kids her age or anyone in track or cross country, I used to go watch every one of her meets. She was the best athlete that school ever had…boy or girl.”

“She sure was,” Will said. “She isn’t here with me, she’s at the base.”

“Well you tell her and Penny I said hi. And your mom and dad too.” She had a coughing fit and Scott hurried over and handed her a glass of water that was sitting on the end table.

“I will Mrs. Pointer. It’s really good to see you.”

“Now. I need you to do something for me,” She said.

“What Mrs. Pointer?”

“I need you to take Scott with you.”

“No!” Scott protested.

“Mrs. Pointer, I would like to, but I don’t think they would let me.” Will was surprised at the request.

“Will Robinson. You know, you were never the aggressive one in your family. Always kind of quiet and shy. Probably because of how some of the kids treated you.” She glanced at her son. “But I told Scott when you were really small, ‘this boy will do things that most kids only dream of.’ I need you to take my son with you and get him out of here. You don’t owe me anything and you certainly don’t owe Scott anything, and I have no right to ask it of you, but I’m a mother which means I have no choice. A mother will do whatever it takes to protect her child.”

Will thought of his mother and the test score and realized how true that was. “I don’t know…”

“Mom, I’m not going anywhere,” Scott said. He walked over to her chair and got on one knee and held her hand. “I’m going to take care of you.”

“You’re not going to do any such thing, honey. I will be dead in a year. This is your chance to get out of here and I’m not going to argue with you.”

“Mom, no!”

“Will, are you going to do this for me?”

Will didn’t know if he even could. The criteria for colonization was rigorous and took weeks to complete, and there was already a long waiting list of approved colonists since the trips had been on hold for the last three years. “Mrs. Pointer, they wouldn’t let me.”

“Did they let you come here?”

“No,” he answered.

“And yet here you are,” she said. “If you decide you want to do this, you will do it. You just need to decide.”

“Mom, No!” Scott said.

Will looked at the two of them. He knew what she said was true. She wasn’t going to live long. And then what would happen to Scott? The Scott he knew was going to go to college and play football. He was a fast wide receiver who had no trouble going across the middle. The Scott he knew, who used to terrorize Will when he was walking to school, could probably pass the tests for colonization without breaking a sweat. But this boy was a shell of his former self. He would probably die here in the old neighborhood in a few years. There was nothing here for him and no future. No sense in both of us dying, Will thought to himself.

“I’ll do it.” Will said. “But we have to leave now.”

“Scott go pack a bag,” His mom said, excitedly.

“He doesn’t need to,” Will said. “The ship is like a town. There will be everything he needs.”

“Mom…”

“Scott, now you listen to me. I know your dad’s dead. I’ve always known it. I stayed here because I was waiting for this. Don’t ask me how. But I knew if I stayed there would be a way for you to get out of here. Now the way is here. I love you son. I will always love you. And now you have to love me back just as much by getting out of here.”

“But what are you going to do?” He was crying now.

“Don’t you worry about me, Scott. If you get out of here alive my job is done. Now I’ve done the best I can with you. I wasn’t perfect, but neither were you, so we’re even there. Now give me a hug and get out of here.”

The boy hugged her tightly and cried, but she pushed him off after a minute. “Will, I’ll never forget this.”

Will walked over and hugged her skinny body. “I’ll take care of him, Mrs. Pointer. Don’t worry.”

He stood up and looked at Scott. “We really have to leave or I’m gonna miss my ride.”

Scott hugged his mom one last time, then followed Will to the door. He turned again and smiled at his mother. She was smiling back, happier than she had been in years.

Once they were on the street, Will said, “We need to run I think. You know the Shell down on Bell street? That’s where he’s meeting me.”

“OK. Thanks, Will.” He was wiping his eyes. “I’m sorry…”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Scott. Let’s go.”

The two boys jogged down the middle of the street. There was no traffic and it was quicker than dodging the cars still parked across driveways where they had been left.

Scott began coughing within a block. Will stopped. “Here take my gas mask.” He helped the boy get it on, then they began jogging again.

They were two blocks from the Shell station when Scott reached his hand out and grabbed Will’s shoulder. The boy stopped.

Scott pulled the gas mask off. “Listen.”

They heard a car engine. It seemed to be getting closer. “Two of them?” Will asked.

Then blocks down the road, they saw a car coming through the thick air. It was a pickup truck and it looked like there were people in the back of it.

“Go!” Scott yelled, shoving Will out of the middle of the road toward the houses. “Follow me!” He yelled.

He ran ahead, crossing between two houses and jumping a small chain link fence, then waited for Will to make sure the boy made it. Will was no longer the small, timid kid that used to live in the neighborhood, and he was over the fence almost at the same time Scott was.

Will looked back to the road where the pickup truck had stopped. People were piling out of the back.

“Run!” Scott yelled, pulling Will by the shoulder. Scott ran into an alley, Will on his heels. They turned right, then cut through another yard when a van turned down the alley toward them.

Will was having a hard time breathing the thick air through his face mask, and finally pulled it down. Scott had dropped the gas mask somewhere. They ran between more houses, across another street, and in to another alley. Scott ran down the alley, Will close behind. They heard a car engine behind them and looked over their shoulders. “This way!” Scott yelled.

Scott ducked through another yard, then cleared another fence on the run, and Will briefly remembered watching him in a game against Westchester, when the boy completely hurdled a defensive back to score a touchdown to win the conference title. The athlete was still in him.

Will cleared the fence, and the boys stopped to get their breath. They listened. They couldn’t hear the car engines. “Did we lose them?” Scott asked.

“Maybe. I think we lost my ride too though,” Will said, checking his time.

“Will? Why are you grinning?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? This is dangerous Will. These guys are serious.”

“Danger...that’s something I understand,” Will answered. He was still smiling.

Then a man appeared around the house. “Go!” Will said, and ran past Scott through a yard and out to another street. The boys ran side by side. At first, they heard yelling and the sounds of running feet behind them, but they began putting distance between them and their pursuers.

They ran on for another thirty minutes before stopping. Will’s breathing was getting worse, and his head was pounding. They stopped in an alley behind an old hardware store to catch their breath. Both boys were coughing now. Will took water from his backpack and handed the bottle to Scott.

They heard an engine again, and took off running. They were going the opposite way of the gas station now, getting further and further from the military base, but they had no choice. They hid behind a dumpster in the back of a bar. The truck and the van kept running back and forth down the street in front of them, then they would hear one of the vehicles a block or two away, then back near them.

“Who are they?” Will asked Scott, as they sat side by side, leaning up against the dumpster.

“Just some guys who stayed. A bunch of them out there like that. They just take what they want. No cops around, no military. Anyone here that can’t leave has to deal with them.”

They heard a helicopter above, but they couldn’t see it in the polluted air. A light beam cut through the alley.

“They’re looking for something,” Scott said.

Will stood up and walked in to the alley, and started waving his arms back and forth.

“Will, what are you doing?” Scott called to him, still hiding behind the dumpster.

The sound of the helicopter drifted further away, and Will went back behind the dumpster. “They were probably looking for me,” he said.

“No, they do this all the time. We are close to the barrier fence and they patrol it. Why would they be looking for you?”

Will ignored the question. He was in no hurry to tell Scott how important he was to them. For the first time in his life, he felt equal to another boy from his neighborhood, and regardless of the danger, he was actually enjoying this.

They had seen several businesses now, but everything was abandoned. “Is anything open? What do you do for food?” Will asked.

“Military brings trucks on Saturday mornings with stuff. The closest delivery to us is at the old Albertson’s. That’s real interesting when I get food and try to get back home. Those guys circle around trying to rob anyone who goes after the food.”

They heard the roar of a jet overhead, closer to the surface than it should be. “Is that normal too?”

“No,” Scott answered.

The van appeared at the end of the alley. “You OK to go?” Will asked.

"Yep."

They stood and ran out into the next street. The pickup was parked there waiting.

“Shit!” Scott yelled, then dashed across a parking lot and behind a drugstore, Will right behind him. The people had left the cars and pursued them on foot now.

They boys ran another twenty minutes before they felt they had put distance between them and their pursuers. They stopped to catch their breath, and one of the men appeared between two stores, not half a block away. Will yelled, “Let’s go!” And ducked across a road and into a small park, heading toward the other end.

“Not that way!” Scott yelled, but Will hadn’t heard him. Scott ran after the boy.

Will sprinted to the end of the park, into a small bunch of trees, but stopped when Scott yelled, “Wait!” Will then saw he was looking at a tall fence. It had to be ten meters high, barbed wire at the top. Scott appeared beside him.

“What’s this?” Will said.

“The barrier for downtown.” Scott said. “That’s the red zone. No one can go there.”

“You boys are going to pay for this.” They looked behind them. Four men and a woman were walking toward them. They were all ragged looking, dirty; hair long, stringy and unwashed.

Then the pickup drove into the park and across the grass. It stopped beside the other people, and two women and three men piled out of the back and the cab.

“Hey, that one’s cute,” one of the women said, looking at Will. “Can I keep him for a pet?” A couple of the other women and one of the men laughed. “You can have what’s left,” one of the men said. He took a knife out of his pocket.

Will and Scott looked to their left and right, but there was nowhere to go. “Will, get ready to run,” Scott whispered. “I’m going to jump them, and you get out of here.”

“It’s not happening, Scott.”

The boy looked at him. “You’ve changed a lot, Will.”

“Maybe not so much,” Will said, smiling. Then he looked at their pursers, walking closer. “We’re going to give you one chance to surrender.”

“Oh, you’ve changed alright,” Scott said to him.

Then there was a roar from above and the air was swirling, kicking up dust all around. Visibility was so bad they couldn’t tell what it was. A strong light beam cut through the dusty air, illuminating them, and a voice came out of the sky, “Stop where you are and back off.” Everyone watched an F 79 Phantom slowly descending through the thick, orange air where it stopped and hovered.

Scott looked ready to run again. “No, it’s a friend,” Will said.

The Phantom was thirty meters above them. “Last warning,” The voice said.

Their pursuers began piling into the pickup truck, the driver quickly started it and threw it into gear. As they drove across the grass, the Phantom made a slow vertical landing where the truck had been sitting.

Will said, “Let’s go, Scott.”

The top hatch popped open and Will climbed up to the side of the cockpit.

“Where the hell’s your HAZMAT suit, Will?” The Pilot asked.

“No one told me I needed one,” He replied.

“You mean, no one in the bathroom you climbed out of? And who’s this?” Scott had climbed up beside Will.

“He’s an old friend. He’s going with us,” Will answered.

“They’re not going to let him do that.”

“I’m not going to ask. If they don’t want to stay here, they’ll see things my way. And by looking at it, they don’t want to stay.” He turned to Scott. “Go ahead and get in.”

Scott stepped past Will, then climbed in to the seat behind the pilot. Will sat in the seat next to him.

“So what’s your friend’s name?”

“Scott. He’s a friend from my old neighborhood.” Scott grinned in the back seat, wondering why Will was so nice to him.

“Glad to meet you, sir,” Scott said.

The pilot turned around and looked at him, but didn’t remove his helmet. “Good to meet you. Don. Don West.”

The boys strapped in, and Don lifted off vertically. Just as he turned the ship toward the base, Will looked down toward the fence. On the other side was a girl, maybe ten years old, looking up at them.

“Hey there’s a girl down there. On the other side of the fence,” he said.

“No,” Scott said. “That’s all closed off. No one can go there.”

“I saw her,” Will argued.

Don banked the ship and flew back over the fence, but when Will looked down the girl was gone.

“So why was your radio off?” Don asked.

“I left it off. I didn’t know who would be listening. When I saw we weren’t going to make it, I hit the signal on the LFR Judy gave me. I knew you would pick it up and find me.”

“Are you ready for the shit that’s going to be facing you when we get to the base.”

“IA? Hastings? Commander Sanders?”

“Seriously? There’s only one person you have to fear.”

“Yeah,” Will said, sounding dejected.

“Who?” Scott asked.

“Judy,” Don and Will answered together.

“Oh shit,” Scott said.

“I see he’s met your sister.”


	5. Chapter 5

When they landed at the base, a parade of military vehicles chased them across the runway. “Here comes your welcoming committee,” Don said. “You Robinsons.”

As the plane came to a halt and Don lifted the cockpit and Will stepped out, he watched as dozens of people piled out of the vehicles, all of them in HAZMAT suits. Will climbed down, followed by Scott, while Don exited on the opposite side.

Three people grabbed Will and pushed him into the back seat of one of the military trucks, while Scott was taken to another one. They quickly sped off toward the administration offices.

“How do you feel?” the woman sitting beside Will asked. Then he noticed the person in the HAZMAT suit next to him was Dr. Terrell.

“I’m fine, breathing wasn’t easy though. No one told us what was going on here,” He answered.

“No one expected you to leave the base,” Dr. Terrell answered. “The next part isn’t going to be fun.”

“Judy?”

“Decontamination shower,” Dr. Terrell answered.

He wasn’t even sure what that was. “Why, what happened in the city?”

“Well, first it was a virus. Started in the neighborhoods downtown. A strain of Ebola, but much more deadly. About a ninety nine percent fatality rate. Only the youngest, most healthy kids survived at first, but then there was something else. Maybe a dirty bomb. Downtown was evacuated, but we have detected potential contamination spread outside the red zone. River too. None of us go in any of the suburbs within ten kilometers of the barrier fence without HAZMAT protection.”

“There was a girl on the other side of the barrier fence. I saw her.”

“That’s impossible. We have detected no life within the barrier in the last twenty months.”

The truck pulled up next to a building close to the Administration offices where Will and Judy had spent the night. As they piled out, they were met by more people in HAZMAT suits. Will was pushed in the building where others were waiting. One of them rushed up to him and he saw Judy’s face staring at him through the face shield. Here we go, Will thought. But she just grabbed him and hugged him.

“I thought you would yell at me,” he said.

“The day’s not over,” his sister answered.

Then he was pulled away and ushered down a hall.

He was pushed in a room where a man and a woman in HAZMAT suits began pulling his clothes off. “Hey!” He protested, trying to cover himself. But they ignored him, pushing him under a shower, the man holding his arm to keep him in place, while the woman turned the water on. A large stream of tepid water poured over him. They kept him in the shower for twenty minutes, then he was taken into another room where he was given a large towel and they left him. When he was dry, he wrapped the towel around himself and sat on a padded table and waited.

His skin was red and sore. “How embarrassing,” He said, not realizing he was talking aloud until he heard Judy’s voice say, “You deserved it.”

The door was behind him and he hadn’t heard her enter. He turned his head and looked at her as she came to the table in front of him, carrying a pile of clothes for him.

“Judy…”

“Will don’t apologize and don’t say anything. I’m so pissed at you right now I’m just trying not to yell. How do you feel?”

“OK. It’s kind of hard to breath. I didn’t have any idea things were like that here. Did you?”

“No. Everyone freaked out when you came up missing, and that’s the first time I heard them talk about contamination. They say there was some kind of virus then maybe a dirty bomb.”

“You don’t find it weird that no one has said anything?”

“Will, don’t start with some conspiracy. The issue would never have come up, as no one expected you to leave the base!”

“I know. I wanted to see our old house and the neighborhood. I thought I would be back in two hours and no one would know I was missing.”

“How did you get all the way down there?” She asked.

“Someone drove me. But I can’t say who. Judy, you should have seen it. The neighborhood is abandoned, and almost everything around it. And there were people chasing us. Scott says they just run around attacking people, stealing their stuff.”

“Scott? Is that the boy you brought back? Scott who?”

“Scott Pointer. His mom asked me to take him with us. I saw her, she’s dying.”

“Take him with us? They won’t do that.”

“I’m going to make them an offer they can’t refuse,” Will said.

“Will, you’re pushing your control over them. At best, we have an arrangement that keeps us alive, and we still get to see the family every six weeks. And, you are saving people by taking them to Alpha Centauri.”

“And taking IA to the Amber planet,” he said. The loop, as they called it, was to take the Resolute 2 to Earth, load colonists at the three pick up points in the United States, take them to Alpha Centauri, then return to the Amber Planet. Every six weeks they would be back on the Amber planet for a week, and they would get to see the family then.

“A few at a time,” She said.

“They want me to bring more. I keep telling them no.”

“Why?” She asked. “They don’t even have that many people on Alpha Centauri. Maybe a couple hundred. Even with lasers, I don’t see how they could do much harm to the tribes.”

“I don’t trust them, Judy. I think they want their own world on the Amber planet. Away from any oversight. So I stick to my guns and tell them I will keep doing what they want as long as we take no more than a few IA officers at a time.”

“That’s just what I mean, Will. You keep drawing all of these lines in the sand, like they have no control over you. Yet, we’re their prisoners. You can only push them so far. This whole limit on IA doesn’t make sense to me. Wouldn’t you rather have them there than on Alpha Centauri?”

“I just think I have to push back, or they will have total control. As long as this works, we can keep getting people from Earth to Alpha Centauri, that’s the most important thing now, especially since I have seen how bad it is here.”

He was trying to keep IA from what they really wanted, access to the robots and Engines. Even though he and his counterpart had not done what was expected of them, he felt responsible. As if he was still The Guardian of the alternate world, only on his terms.

Judy walked to a console against the wall, took a scanner from a docking unit, walked back to Will and ran it over him from his head to his toes. “Looks OK, no reading at all,” she said. She removed her HAZMAT helmet.

He could see how stressed she looked. “I really am sorry, Judy. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I have resigned myself to this, Will. You are going to keep doing things that scare me, and I am going to keep trying to keep you alive.” She sounded tired.

“Judy, I wish you could just go back to Alpha Centauri, go back to the hospital, get on with your life. You are living my life. I can refuse to do anything for them unless they let you go.”

“I don’t even know if that’s what I want to do anymore, Will. Nothing has been the same since I spent those months with the Kur. Right now my main concern is you.”

“Judy, you’ve been as much a mother to me as a sister the last year. Whether you want to hear it or not, I’m sorry for how much you have given up to take care of me.”

“Two things, Will. One, I don’t think I’m giving up anything to keep my brother safe, and two, I’m your sister and I can’t replace mom. Do you think mom would have left you in the tent with Nin?”

He blushed and smiled. “No.”

She smiled back at him, both of them silent. Then Will said, “You never asked me about it.”

“Of course not. It was personal. I figured if you wanted to talk to me about it, you would let me know.”

He looked at her and didn’t say anything. She looked around the room. Then he looked around the room. She started whistling. He started humming. Then she said, “Damn it Will! How was it?”

He grinned, still blushing. “Um…quick.”

They both laughed. “But…we were there all night so…”

“So it was OK,” she said.

He laughed again. “You could say that. I don’t think I was the first guy for her.”

“Well, you know she comes from a whole different culture. They grow up a lot faster. Does it bother you? That you weren’t her first?”

“No. That’s not what I meant at all. I meant…she was experienced. So, it…um…it was a good night.” He grinned sheepishly.

She grinned back at him. “I’m happy for you, little brother.”

“So…Clay?”

“Yeah.” She sat beside him on the bed. “We were at his house. But he had this issue with his room because his mom put all these baby pictures of him everywhere and he felt weird about it. Me too,” she laughed. “So we were in his basement on an old dusty couch. And his mom and dad were supposed to be gone all weekend, but they came home just when we were…you know. So we are running around trying to get dressed, his mom yelling all through the house, “Clay? You here? We need help carrying stuff in. What are you doing?”

Will and Judy both laughed until tears came to their eyes, with Judy saying, “It was horrible!” through her laughter.

When their laughter slowed, Will said, “Well, it’s not like my first time was so great. I mean, I was on a planet we didn’t even know existed, in a galaxy we didn’t even know existed. On the other side of the universe. With a girl from another planet. Probably the most beautiful girl on the planet.” Judy pursed her lips sarcastically, knowing where this was going. “And she’s also a deadly warrior. And we are in a jungle. Surrounded by soldiers who are guarding us. In a tent. In a storm. It’s raining hard on the tent and the lightening lights things up every few minutes. So basically…yeah. Nothing memorable. I pretty much forgot everything about it.”

“You suck, Will.” Then she laughed and hugged him.

“What are you guy’s talking about?” They turned to the door where Don had walked in.

“Will was just telling me how bad things have been for him since he came to space.”

“Yeah, sorry bud,” Don said. He took his HAZMAT helmet off, then looked at their faces. “Um…yeah, there’s a joke there somewhere. Right?”

Judy and Will looked at each other.

“No,” Will said. “It’s all been bad.”

“Everything,” Judy said.

He saw them trying to hold in their laughter. “Whatever with you two. Glad to see you’re still alive, Will.”

“I didn’t register any contamination,” he said.

“I mean I’m glad to see Judy didn’t kill you.”

“Yeah.” He didn’t laugh though. He felt bad for his sister. “Thanks for being there today, Don.”

“That’s the first time I had a chance to do what I came here for. I hope it’s the last time.”

John and Maureen had approached Hastings in the military compound on the Amber planet after they had set up a command post there in the same buildings the members of the Fortuna had used. They insisted that one of them accompany Will and Judy while Will was working for IA. Hastings refused, and when Don found out about it, he volunteered to go. When they approached Hastings with that as a compromise, he agreed. He just saw Don as a mechanic, pilot, and a one-time smuggler. He didn’t think the man was smart enough to give IA any trouble, and maybe he would be a voice of reason with the boy. He had them give him a room across the corridor from Will and Judy’s rooms on the Resolute 2.

“Where’s Scott?” Will asked Don.

“He’s in isolation. He was clear too, now they are trying to decide what to do with him.”

The door opened and Hastings walked in. “Nice Will. We scrambled every fucking plane on the base looking for you.”

“If you had just asked me where he might have gone before you did that, I could have told you,” Judy said. She had been pushed in a containment cell and ignored until Don reported that he had Will.

“Regardless, this shit has to stop, Will,” Hastings said. “This was your first trip back, and this is what you do? Who’s this kid you brought back?”

“He’s an old friend.” Judy looked at her brother when he said this. “He’s going with us.”

“He’s not going with us.”

“Yes he is. He’s going to die if we leave him here. You take him with us, I promise no more trouble from me.”

“Sure Will. Whatever you say. But you better start picking what hill you are willing to die on. That skinny kid doesn’t look worth it to me. We are boarding the transport in two hours. You all better be ready.” He turned and walked out.

Judy walked into the room where Scott was sitting in a towel, his skin red like Will’s was. She had a pile of clothes with her. The boy looked up when she walked in.

“Hi Scott,” she said.

“Hi, Judy. Is Will OK?”

“Yes. Will told me about your father, and that your mom is sick. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks, Judy. I don’t know what my mom is going to do now. She will have to go pick up food Saturday morning when its delivered. She can still get around, and the car works, but it’s not safe there.”

“Will told me. We had no idea this had happened. I brought you some of Will’s clothes. You guys are about the same size now. We leave in a couple hours.”

“Thanks, Judy. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Why are you guys so nice to me? You don’t have any reason to be. Especially Will. I…wasn’t nice to him before.”

“You know, I asked Will the same thing. Why he was so nice to you. He just looked at me like he didn’t understand the question. Like it was ridiculous. That’s the way he is. You were someone who needed help. Anything that happened in the past had nothing to do with him helping you. He would have helped anyone. You have no idea some of the things he has gone through because of that.”

“He sure is different, that’s for sure. There were like, twelve people chasing us. Once we knew we couldn’t escape, he told them it was time for them to surrender.” They both laughed.

“Can I ask you a question?” Judy said. “Why were you so mean to him? All of you? He didn’t have any friends at all.”

Scott looked down for a few seconds, and when he looked up she could see he was emotional. “I think, you guys were all so perfect, we just couldn’t stand it. We made ourselves hate you. The other kids in the neighborhood too.”

“Why? There was nothing perfect about us.”

“My dad managed a grocery store. My mom was a customer service rep at an insurance company. Your dad was a Navy SEAL, and your mom was a fucking rocket scientist. Penny was like, editor of the school newspaper and we all knew she was going to be a famous writer someday. And you have a whole trophy case in the hall of the school. You won both the 400 at state two years in a row and the 800 your senior year. We all wanted to be Penny’s friend, and we couldn’t ever decide if we were more in love with you or afraid of you.”

Judy smiled at this.

“And you were all so nice all the time. We hated you and wanted to be you at the same time. So I guess we all took it out on Will. He was so smart, and so nice. But he was vulnerable, and there was nothing vulnerable about you and Penny.”

“You know he was better than all of us,” Judy said. “That’s why you’re here now.”

“I know. If I could change it I would.”

“You know what Will says? He says, maybe the person you see now isn’t really who he is going to be. He gives everyone the benefit of the doubt. OK, get dressed. Someone will come and get you when it’s time to board.”

“Thanks Judy.”

When Judy walked back down to Will’s room, he was dressed and speaking to Dr. Terrell. Judy said hi to the doctor as she left the kids and exited the room. “What did she want?” Judy asked him when they were alone.

“I just asked her to do something. I don’t know if she will.” He didn’t say any more, and Judy didn’t pry.

“You ready?” She asked her brother.

The Resolute 2 had left Earth’s orbit. Don was sitting with Judy at the cafeteria when Scott walked in. He had tears in his eyes. They looked up and Judy said, “What’s wrong, Scott?”

“Where’s Will?”

“He’s in the engine room. I guess you don’t know what he does here,” Don said.

“He just sent me this.” He turned his wrist radio to them so they could see a photo on it. “It’s my mom in the hospital at the base. Will’s message said he didn’t know if they could help her, but they were going to try, and they would find her a place to live where she wouldn’t be alone.” He wiped his eyes. “Will did this, didn’t he?”

“How long have you known, Will?” Judy asked him.

“I don’t know. I think he was three or four when you moved to the neighborhood. Around ten years, I guess.” He wiped his eyes again.

“Well, now you really know him.”

“But how? And how did he get me on board?”

“Well, this ship is pretty much mankind’s only hope for survival,” Don said.

“And?” Scott asked.

“And he’s in the engine room.”


	6. Chapter 6

Judy had listened as Will told the story about returning to Earth. But she was thinking about what had happened when they had gone to Alpha Centauri, something she was sure Will wasn’t going to tell, and something she had promised him that she wouldn’t mention either. We keep our secrets, she thought to herself, though she wasn’t sure that was always the best thing.

She had transported to the planet to meet Kent. She had felt bad about the way she had left him when her brother had been arrested for trying to take a Jupiter and an engine. Kent had stood at her door and professed his love for her, and her only answer was that she had no time for it. She hadn’t seen him since. Will hated Alpha Centauri and stayed on the Resolute 2. He said he was only interested in leaving the ship when they went to the Amber Planet to see Penny and their parents.

Judy stayed on Alpha Centauri for a day and a night. Kent was a nice guy and very understanding, and he said he was willing to wait for her. She made him no promises, and told him she had no idea what the future would bring, but she ended up spending the night with him.

Don had gone to the planet to see Ava, and when they returned on the transport to the Resolute 2, Hastings and a doctor were waiting for them. “You need to take care of your brother,” Hastings said to Judy.

“What’s wrong with him?” She asked as they hurried down the hall toward his bedroom.

“He’s been in his room since you left, and isn’t talking to anyone. This shit needs to stop,” Hastings said.

“Jesus, do you know what he’s been through?”

“I don’t care what he’s been through, I care that he takes us to the Amber Planet, and we figure out what’s going on with him. That other robot is almost ready for a scrap pile.”

When they got to Will’s room, they found Will sitting on his bed, his back against the wall and his head in his hands, just staring ahead.

“He’s been like this since yesterday,” Hastings said.

“OK, everyone go away, let me go in by myself,” Judy said.

“You sure?” Don asked.

“Yes. I’ll yell if I need you.”

“OK. I’ll stay right by the door.”

“Thanks Don.” She smiled at him.

Hastings looked at the doctor. “Let’s let them handle this.” They walked off and Don and Judy heard Hastings say, “This kid’s so weird.”

Judy started to yell something down the hall at them, but Don said, “Don’t. It’s not worth it. Take care of your brother.” She hugged him and walked in and closed the door.

She sat on the bed next to her brother. She was going to try to talk to him, but she remembered what Penny had told her about Gary Sargent and how he handled Will when he had one of his blackouts in his class. So instead she just sat on the bed and placed a hand on his arm so he would know she was there.

Will sat in that position almost another hour before he suddenly looked at Judy. Then he just started crying and hugged her. Judy held him and let him cry. Finally, when he stopped she said, “Will, what happened?”

“It was just a dream, Judy. A really bad dream.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“No,” he said quickly. He looked like he was going to cry again.

“OK Will. It’s OK. You don’t have to tell me. But I’m here now. Everything’s OK.” This was a strange time for them both, she knew. So often she could see an older, stronger Will, and other times, like this, he was still the small boy that was so unsure of everything. At times like these, she just wanted to hold him and tell him that it was all going to be alright. She just hoped that was true. 

“I’m sorry Judy. For everything.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for Will. I’m your sister. I will always take care of you.”

He just held on to her for a long time without saying anything. Eventually he laid down and she sat beside him on the bed until he felt asleep. She spent the rest of the night beside him. She was worried. If what Hastings said was true, he had been in this state for over a day. Normally his blackouts would last from a few short minutes to maybe an hour. But what worried her more was his refusal to talk to her about his dream. After the last two years, they shared everything, or she thought they did. But whatever this had been had scared him so badly he didn’t want to talk about it. She decided she was going to have to do whatever it took to get him help.

By the time Will was done telling the story, it was dark.

“So it was a virus, and a terrorist attack afterward?” John asked.

“That’s what they told us,” Will answered.

“None of us heard anything about it until they launched the search parties,” Don said. “When they announced the scramble, all of the pilots were in HAZMAT suits. I had to find one before going after him.”

“They let you take a Phantom?” John asked.

“Define ‘let,” Don answered.

“And you didn’t get in trouble?” Penny asked him.

“Well, I brought Will back. It might have been different if I hadn’t. Visibility was so bad that it was hard to spot anything until I was maybe fifty meters above the surface. But Will had a low frequency radio on him and signaled me and I tracked him on the GPS.”

“You expected something to happen?” Maureen asked. “That’s why the LFR?”

“It was Judy’s idea,” Will replied.

“Idea’ isn’t exactly accurate,” Don said. “She demanded it as soon as we were on the transport to Earth.”

“I know my little brother,” Judy said.

Will glanced at her, again feeling guilty for everything he was putting her through. When they were on the transport, Judy had taken the cubed device out of her backpack and handed it to him. It was small enough to fit in his palm and had a button in the center. “What is it?” Will asked.

“An LFR,” she had explained. Since it was low frequency, the long wavelengths could pass through mountain ranges or cave systems or any other place he might get lost in. “So when your wrist radio can’t transmit, you can send Morse code, or we can pick it up on GPS. The case is waterproof and almost indestructible. You gave me the idea with the signal system you set up with dad when he was overseas and in space. You have to promise me no matter what, you will keep this on you at all times.”

Will was touched and had promised her he would always carry it with him. Judy had given one to Don as well.

“There was a girl inside the barrier fence,” Will said. “I saw her when Don lifted off.”

“Did you see the girl?” Judy asked Don.

“No, Scott didn’t either. We flew over the fence, but she wasn’t there.”

“Yeah,” Will agreed. “She disappeared by the time Don turned the ship around.”

“Do you think there’s a possibility it wasn’t a girl?” Judy asked her brother. “Maybe a bush or shadows or something?”

“It was a girl,” Will said.

Judy let it go.

Penny watched the exchange, wondering about Judy’s question. Her sister was nice when she asked him, but Penny could tell there was something else in the question.

“Well, if there was,” Maureen said. “She was near the fence. I’m sure they put the barrier out a lot further than they thought they needed to, just to be safe. She must be far away from ground zero to have survived somehow.”

“ _If_ there was a girl,” Judy said.

Will looked at her. “I’m going to go bed,” he said. He stood up and hugged them all, holding on to his mother for several minutes. She didn’t want to break the hug, but she finally let him go. When he walked over to Penny she stood and said, “I’ll walk in with you, I need to go to the bathroom.”

They went in the Jupiter together. Will walked to the bathroom first but when he went back to his room, Penny was lying on his bed. He laid down beside her.

She put her head on his shoulder again. He was almost as tall as she was now. “What’s going on with Judy?” She asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t blame her. I’m sure she’s tired of it all. Maybe I really didn’t see the girl. The air was so bad. The visibility sucked. You should have seen it, Penny. It was like something out of Stephen King.”

“What are they doing with Scott?”

“They said they’ll find a family for him to live with on Alpha Centauri for a while until he adjusts. You know what’s crazy? We were running all over the neighborhood with those people chasing us. Everything was dirty and abandoned, couldn’t hardly breath. But that was the most fun I had ever had with anyone from home. Other than our family. It made me realize how much it sucked to not have any friends growing up. But I didn’t dwell on that. I just thought how much fun I was having. Maybe I really am crazy.”

“Nope, you’re not crazy at all. If anything, you’re probably too sane. After everything you have gone through, you find some boy who used to bully you and you save his life. And then what you did with his mom.”

“Well, I didn’t want anyone to know, but Scott told Judy,” Will answered. “I didn’t do much. There was a doctor that was pretty nice. I asked her if there was any way to send people and pick Mrs. Pointer up and get her to the hospital and see if they could help her. She wasn’t sure she could do it, so I was really happy when she sent me the photo.”

They laid there for a while in silence, then Penny said, “How are we going to get out of this, Will? I don’t want to see my brother and sister every six weeks for a few days.”

“I don’t know, Penny. I’ve been trying to think of something, but I haven’t been able to. After seeing how things were back home, right now I just want to help get as many people as possible to Alpha Centauri. But we’ll think of something, we always do.”

She turned to him and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll let you get some sleep. I love you little brother.”

“I love you too Penny.”

She stood up and walked to the door, looked back at him and smiled, then left, shutting the door behind her. “Penny,” she heard him call.

She opened the door. “Sorry Will, I forgot.”

“Thanks,” he said as she smiled at him and turned away, leaving the door open.

Will rolled over and closed his eyes. He was hoping he wouldn't dream. He had been dreaming of Judy again, in the dark chamber, telling him she should never have pulled him out of the river. But he had one on the Resolute 2 when Judy had transported down to Alpha Centauri. This one was worse, with his sister shouting over and over again, "I hate you Will! I hate you Will!"

Penny got a drink and walked back outside and sat down by the others.

“I was waiting for you to come back,” Judy said. “I need to talk to everyone.”

“What’s going on,” Maureen said.

“I’m sure it’s about, Will,” Penny said, frowning at her sister.

“Penny, let’s not do that,” Judy said. “I appreciate you care so much about Will. But you know I do too. Don’t attack me for trying to help my brother.”

Penny started to argue, but she decided against it. She sat in silence.

“I took Will to the medical facility at Los Alamitos. He hadn’t had a complete physical since we first arrived on Alpha Centauri. For one thing, I wanted to find out if IA really had inserted an implant when they had him. But his tests all came back normal. At least the physicals.”

“And the scars on his head?” Penny asked.

“I said the physical exams were normal.”

“What are you saying?” Maureen asked.

“The mental exams were concerning. They gave him a series of psychological examinations. The Chief Medical Doctor thinks Will is bordering on psychosis.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Penny said.

“All of the tests they gave him said the same thing,” Judy said. “Don, was the girl there?”

“Well, I didn’t see her.”

“Just because you didn’t see her doesn’t mean Will didn’t,” Penny argued. “And what about the scars?” she asked, turning to Judy.

“He could have done it to himself,” Judy said.

“No way!”

“Look Penny, I love Will every bit as much as you do. That’s why I’m so worried about him.”

“Yeah, but look how much he has said that was true,” Penny argued.

“Look how much he has said that we can’t prove,” Judy replied. “This thing about visions and a cave he just had to get to and some woman. Then he comes back and says there was nothing there, it was all a mistake. He should have come with me to the Valley looking for Nin, and the URI never would have had him. But he insisted on this cave and the White Room, then suddenly it’s nothing.

“The doctors told me I need to listen closely to what he says, and to challenge him. That it might help him see what’s real and what isn’t. I think we all need to do the same thing.”

“Judy, wasn’t it bad enough, the way you treated Will on Alpha Centauri?” Penny saw the hurt in Judy’s face when she said that but at that moment she didn’t care. “It’s like you’re going out of your way to push him away from you. Is that what you want?”

“That’s unfair, Penny. You know what I’ve given up…”

“What you’ve given up for Will? Is that what you were going to say?”

“No. I didn’t mean that.”

“How about what Will’s given up for you? For everyone. He was a normal twelve year old boy. Normal except for how smart he was. Smart enough to figure out what the robots wanted. Then he gave up everything to save us. Us and a bunch of people he didn’t even know.”

“Penny, you don’t love Will any more than I do,” Judy said. “And I know how I treated him on Alpha Centauri was wrong. I’ll never forgive myself for it. And that’s why I refuse to just sit by and let this go without doing everything I can to help him get better.”

Penny stood up and walked into the Jupiter 2 without saying anything else.

Judy sighed. “I’ve been thinking of something else too. It’s probably good Penny isn’t here. I think Will needs to stay at Los Alamitos for a while. For them to do more tests. I talked to Hastings already. He agreed that they could use the captured Robot for the trip. I was surprised he was so willing, but maybe he realizes that a healthy Will is better for them as well.”

“How are you going to convince Will to do that?” Maureen asked.

“I wasn’t going to ask him.”

“Commit him?” Maureen asked.

“For just six weeks. To do more tests and let some real professionals diagnose him. Then bring him back on the loop after that. They don’t have the facilities on Alpha Centauri, and I’m afraid Will is really having problems.”

“Without Will knowing?” John asked. “Penny’s right. Your relationship with your brother really suffered for a while on Alpha Centauri. How do you think he will take it?”

“Everyone’s relationship with him suffered, except for Penny’s. Did you guys make any decisions that you thought weren’t in his best interests?”

“No,” John said. “But we made some we wish we could have back.”

“But if he isn’t alright, mentally, nothing else matters. I’m willing to risk our relationship if it makes him better. But I’m not his mother or father. I’m just telling you what I think we should do. You guys need to decide.”

“She’s right,” Maureen said. They all looked at her. “I want him to get better, or at least find out what’s wrong with him. He’s not the same. Let us think about it and we’ll let you know before you leave.”


	7. Chapter 7

_“Inanna’s Journal: August_

_The trip through the mountains was long in many ways. It took us six months, and we lost three men and two children in the early snow storm. And all along we didn’t know if the valley even existed._

_But as we crossed the final pass, and had our first sight of the Valley, I’m reminded of the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, “Home is the sailor, home from the sea, and the hunter home from the hill.”_

_These words were placed on his tombstone, on the island of Samoa, where he died on his veranda on the slope of Voca Mountain and was buried at the age of forty four. Samoa was his refuge, his paradise, his chosen home. As I gazed on this mystical valley for the first time, I hoped that we would find the same refuge here, the same home here, as Mr. Stevenson found on his island in paradise._

Maureen thumbed through the journal. Most of it was just daily notes about insignificant things like the weather, how the people were adjusting to their new environment, petty differences that the woman had to manage. But then there was a much longer passage.

_Inanna’s Journal: October_

_We broke ground on the house on the hill. It will look over the Valley where the others have built shelters, which they will eventually turn into their homes. There were several hills around the Valley that would suffice, but the robot changed everything. It was a surprise to say the least. Bob and I had hiked back into the mountains, where we had found a trail that we thought some past civilization must have used. Imagine our surprise to see the large robot standing in a small canyon just watching us. We had seen the robots from a distance, but they had never attempted to communicate with us. They truly have been “the Watchers,” as the native population calls them._

_But this one was staring at us intently for several minutes, and then began walking toward us. My initial reaction was to run, but Bob told me we should wait to see what it did. The robot crossed the ravine, walked up to us where we stood on the trail, then walked right past us. We followed it. The trail ascended along the side of a mountain that we had just crossed over to get to the side we were on. After an hour or so, the robot stopped. We were five meters behind it, but it turned and looked at us, as if it was waiting for us to catch up. When we finally stopped behind it, it turned toward the face of the mountain, then moved a large flat stone out of the way. It had been perfectly camouflaged._

_Once the stone was moved, we could see there was a tunnel leading into the side of the mountain. The robot stepped out of the way. It was obvious it wanted us to see the tunnel. We walked past the robot, and could see the tunnel had been designed as a passage through the mountain. It was large enough that three people could walk abreast, and five meters high. I was closer than I had ever been to one of the robots and was able to see the magnificence of the synthetic body. It was a feat of engineering genius. I touched its chest. I had never seen material like this before. It was metal, but it looked both strong and malleable. Bob is an engineer, and he said he had never seen anything like it._

_As I turned to walk into the tunnel, I looked back in to the ravine and I saw a woman standing there. She was too far for me to see her clearly, but she wore bright clothing, so I was sure she was real. But as I looked at her, she stepped back deeper in to the ravine, and I could no longer see her. I told Bob, but when he looked back he couldn’t see her, and I think he didn’t believe me. We walked inside the tunnel together._

_Using the lights from our radios, we illuminated the darkness. Before we knew what was happening, the robot pushed the stone back in front of the door, remaining on the outside. We quickly ran and pushed the stone away, thinking the robot had trapped us. But it moved easily, and the robot was standing on the trail still, just watching us. We decided it wasn’t trying to trap us, just showing where the tunnel opening was, then hiding it again once we were inside. We decided to follow it. When we turned and walked back inside, the robot once again pushed the stone in front of the opening. This time we continued in to the tunnel._

_Two hours later, we came to the end. Bob pressed against the wall and found it was another stone door. It slid open easily, and we saw we were at the foot of a small hill, but the hill looked familiar. We ascended it to see we were back in the Valley. We looked down where the people had built their shelters and realized it was the perfect location. The tunnel could be used as an escape from the valley if we needed it. Somehow, it seemed as if the robot showed us the tunnel so we would know where to build. Or the woman, if I had really seen her._

A woman? Maureen thought. This planet just seemed to get stranger and stranger.

“Will, guess who’s here?” It was the following morning. The boy opened his eyes and looked up at Penny. She was standing in the doorway of his bedroom with a smile on her face. She stepped out of the way and Nin stepped through the door then jumped on him.

“Nin!” Will kissed her. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“Then stop all this flying around and stay here,” She smiled.

“I wish, Nin.”

They kissed again.

“OK, now do you want me to shut the door?” Penny was grinning at them.

“Um…” Will said.

Nin nodded with a big smile on her face. Penny smiled back and slowly closed the door.

She went down to the galley where she had been sitting when Nin arrived. She picked up her coffee cup and sat reading a Dickens novel on a tablet. She remembered back on the Water Planet, when she was watching over Dr. Smith, the woman had told her Dickens was her favorite writer. The two of them had actually almost become friends with their common interest in A Tale Of Two Cities.

About thirty minutes later, Maureen and John walked into the galley. “Hey, Will’s door is closed,” John said. “Is he doing better with the nightmares?”

“Um…must be,” Penny said, then looked at the Journal her mom was carrying and quickly changed the subject.

“Are you learning anything?” Penny asked. Maureen had found the journal in Inanna’s desk in the valley, but had put it in a storage container when Judy and Penny brought Will to the Valley when he was in a coma, and she had forgotten where it was. Once they decided they would be here for a while, she looked through the container and found it. Now she was reading it again.

“I think so. It’s the robots. I want to see what I can find out about them. Who made them. How. Why.”

“What if they were an accident? Like a Frankenstein’s Monster?” Penny asked.

“They weren’t an accident,” Maureen said.

Then Judy walked into the galley and sat at the table. “Hey, Will’s door is shut. Is he awake? He sure doesn’t sleep with it open.”

“He doesn’t?” Maureen asked. “We thought maybe he was doing better.”

Then they looked up as Nin and Will walked in. “He’s better now,” Penny said. Then “Ow!” Judy had kicked her under the table.

They all looked at her, but she was frowning at her sister.

“Nin!” Maureen stood up and hugged the girl. Nin hugged all of them, then Will said, “Is it OK if we take off for a while? We’re just going to explore the woods. My shadows won’t be far behind.” They knew he was talking about the two guards parked in front of the Jupiter 2.

“Yes,” Maureen and John and Judy said at the same time.

Maureen looked at Judy. Judy said, “Sorry.” It was hard for her to suddenly remember she wasn’t responsible for Will when their parents were around.

“Yes,” Maureen said again. “People will be here this afternoon though.”

“We’ll be back by then,” He had poured coffee in two cups.

“When did you start drinking coffee?” John asked.

“It’s for my shadows.”

“Will, why are you so nice to them?” Penny asked.

“They’re just doing their jobs. It must suck to sit out there all night in that Jeep.”

He and Nin walked out.

Maureen said, “Every time I worry about Will, he does something to remind me he’s still the same kind little boy he always was.”

Will walked up to the Jeep with the two cups of coffee. The driver lowered the window as he approached.

“Brought you guys some coffee,” Will said, handing it through the window.

“Um…thanks,” the driver said as he took the two coffees, obviously surprised. This was the first time he had been assigned to follow the boy.

“Hey Dan,” Will called to the other man. Dan had been one of the guards assigned to him on the Resolute 2, so Will knew him well.

“Hey, Will. Thanks for the coffee,” the man answered.

“We’re going to wander around the woods for a while,” Will said. “We won’t be too far ahead.”

“Thanks, Will,” Dan said.

As Will and Nin walked away. The driver looked at Dan and said. “What’s his game?”

“What do you mean?”

“Coffee? Telling us where he’s gonna be?”

“That’s just Will. He’s the easiest detail you will ever have. And he will keep you fed. Just don’t piss him off.”

“You ever see him pissed off?”

“No,” Dan replied. “But rumor is he controls a whole army of robots and he can get them here with a snap of his fingers.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“You want to find out?” Dan asked.

“Maybe someday. Right now we better get going before they get in the woods.” The two kids were holding hands walking across the field toward the trees.

“Sit there and enjoy your coffee. They’re teenagers, let’s give them a little privacy. We’ll catch up to them easy enough.”

Will and Nin walked through the woods for about thirty minutes, until they came to a small clearing near a creek, and Nin said, “This will work.” She unbuckled her sword belt. The long blade hung on her left side. She was right handed, and even though she had trained herself to be ambidextrous, she still liked to reach across her body with her right hand to draw the long blade, using her left hand for the short blade. The Dal used sheaths, never scabbards. They were made of soft leather and light, without a wooden base that the scabbard would have.

“Come here,” she said to Will.

He stepped toward her, and she reached around him to strap the belt on. “No way! You’re going to teach me how to use a sword?”

She liked it when his boyish exuberance showed. He was so stoic most of the time, she thought she was getting glimpses of the boy he used to be before they brought him to the Amber planet and all that happened to him after. “No,” she answered. “I’m going to show you how to use _two_ swords.” Their faces were inches apart as she buckled the belt on him, then she kissed him.

She stepped back and said, “We call the swords blades. Everything used to cut is just a blade. The two we carry that our enemies see are simply the long blade and short blade. The ones you cannot see have different uses, but all just blades. We do not see the reason to name everything like your people do."

Will pulled the long sword, catching it on the sheath as he tried to clear it. “Will, you want to wait until I tell you what to do before you cut something off that you are beginning to learn the use of?” She smiled.

“OK,” he smiled back, embarrassed.

“The first rule about sword fighting the Dal way is the last thing you want to do is fight with the sword.”

“Huh?” He asked.

“Draw the blade,” she told him.

He reached for the long sword, but Nin stepped close and put her open palm on the hilt of his sword, on top of his hand, making it impossible for him to draw it. He kept trying, finally looking down at the sword.

“Look up, Will.” He looked up and saw she had a tiny blade in her other hand, holding it below his rib cage.

“The reason the Dal are so dangerous with swords is that we try to never use them. When you have seen me use swords, we were in open combat with many attackers. But one on one, we try to never let our enemy clear the sheath. And if he is a true sword fighter he will do what you did. He will spend all of his energy and give all of his attention to drawing the blade. And while he is focused on that, he will die. Because a true sword fighter relies on the sword and if he cannot use it, he is lost. He will die trying to clear his sheath with it. Like you just did.”

“What should I have done?”

She took him by the shoulders and turned his body so his right foot was forward, his long sword hanging near his left leg, and his left hip was further away so when he drew the sword she wouldn’t be able to reach his hand or the hilt to stop him from drawing it.

“Now draw the sword. But slowly until you clear the sheath completely. Do not rush.”

This time he was able to clear the blade cleanly.

“Good. Do it again.”

He reached for the sword again, but this time, instead of reaching for the hilt, she simply put her hand out and cupped his elbow. When he crossed his body with his arm to draw the sword, his elbow was pointed toward her, making it very easy for her to reach it, again controlling his drawing hand.

He looked frustrated. She laughed. “This is the true art, Will. Anyone can swing a blade. Half the time you can use two hands and swing it wildly and eventually it is going to hit something and draw blood. But fighting breath to breath when your enemy has blades...this is an art. The art of the quick death. Stretch out your hand.”

He did as he was told, reaching toward her. Arm straight.

She touched the tip of his fingers, then stepped up and touched his chest. “Here. This space from your hand to your chest is where the Dal want to be. We call this the killing space. This is where the art of the quick death happens. Everything we do in battle is designed to get in this space. In this space, your enemy cannot use a long sword. We train to be deadly in this space. So our long blade is used to get us here, our short blade and our many hidden blades or our bare hands are used to kill, once in this killing space.”

“Mom said when you were taken by Inanna, there was a big guard fighting you. She said he tried to draw a sword and you stopped him somehow. Then she said you did a bunch of things she couldn’t see, then he was dead. Is this what you were doing?”

“Yes. Olin Dar. A big man from your world who became Inanna’s commander of her guard. He came to this planet with no knowledge of the blades. He had lasers, which is all he knew. But here he learned to use a sword, which somehow made him feel like a better man. So when I attacked him, he left the two hand lasers in his belt and tried to draw his sword. And he died a quick death. I suppose the sword made him a better man. And now he is a dead man.”

“So you are telling me I should stick to lasers?”

“You should stick to lasers.”

“Then why are you teaching me?”

“Two reasons. One, you straddle both worlds somehow. So learn the new world, which to you is the sword. But also learn the moral of the death of Olin Dar.”

“What’s that?” He asked.

“If you have two lasers, do not reach for a sword.”

He laughed. “OK. You said there were two reasons you are teaching me?”

“The other reason is because you want me to.” She grinned. “OK, back to work.

She took him through a lot of different moves, and had him drill them over and over again for an hour. They were both sweaty when they sat down on a log to take a break. After drinking from the water skin she carried, she said, “Two Dal children will train together, and you won’t be able to see what they are doing. Their hands will be moving so quickly as they stand in the killing space, trying to gain the advantage. The one who frees a hand long enough to strike the other in the throat or face is the victor. We call this the game of hands.”

“Yeah, sounds like a fun game,” he said.

They practiced for a couple more hours, Nin showing him many ways to attack and defend from the close range that she called the killing space. Then she showed him three moves and said, “It takes many years to be an expert, but you can become an expert at one move that could save your life. Tomorrow we will practice these three moves. And you must practice them when you fly again, and when you come back we will see how much you remember.”

As they walked out of the woods on their way back to the Jupiter 2, Will said, “This was so cool, Nin. Thanks a lot.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it Will, but it is not a game. Never draw a blade unless you intend to blood it. You might not have to. I have won many more battles by holding my sword at my enemy’s throat or eye than I have in a true fight. But I was always prepared to blood it when I drew it.”

As they stepped out of the woods, they saw the Jeep sitting at the edge of the forest. Will waved at the two guards and they lifted their hands in return.

When they were walking across the field toward the Jupiter 2, they could see a lot of people had arrived. “Nin, Brent and his people are here, let’s go.” He picked up his pace.

Will walked up to Brent with a smile on his face, hand extended. Brent ignored the hand and picked the boy up in a bear hug. It surprised Will and touched him. He still remembered the man looking into the cell where the Haja had kept Will and Judy.

“You look a lot better, Brent,” Will said. The last time he had seen the big man he was covered in blood and looked half dead.

“That was a low bar, the last time you saw me.”

Marsha, Brent’s top soldier and probably his girlfriend, hugged Will, then she hugged Nin and the others all came up and greeted them.

Two of them had been erecting a tripod over the cold fire pit. Now Will saw three chains hanging from it and a large grate hanging from the chains.

“We’re having a field barbecue,” Brent explained. “Hunted on the way here, and we’ll throw the meat on the grate. You can slow cook everything by raising the grate, or char it by lowering it. It’s how we feed a lot of people in the field. We figured you would have plenty of friends here.”

“What kind of meat?” Will asked.

“Not really sure. We just killed a bunch of shit. Figured your girlfriend could tell us what to eat and what to feed to that big dog lion thing.” He smiled at Nin.

“Bob should be here any time,” Nin said.

“And Dr. Smith?” Will asked. He actually missed her.

“I would think,” She said.

Then he saw Brent take a step back before he stopped, then smiled and said, “speak of the devil.”

Will turned to see what he was looking at, but as soon as he turned he was on his back, Jerry standing over him, licking his face. Will remembered the first time he had seen the four hundred pound Reydu. He had greeted the boy the same way, the huge animal that looked like a dog with the mane of a lion, standing on his chest covering his face with slobber.

“Get off the boy Jerry.”

The animal stepped away from Will and Brent reached down and pulled him to his feet. Will saw Bob walking toward him with a big grin on his face. Dr. Smith was with him, her normal smirk on her face. She walked up to him and gave him a hug. “How was your trip back home?”

“Weird,” he said.

They looked up to see the rest of the family walking out of the Jupiter 2.

Bob and Dr. Smith had been living in the city since the robot battle and Will and Judy had left to go with IA. Nin was staying there with Terry and Zana, in their old house on the south side of the city. The Dal had moved back to their homeland, but were now drifting back to the city. As more and more of the outsiders came to the planet and began inhabiting the old military compound, the Dal expected trouble eventually. They weren’t the kind to stay far from trouble.

“Looks like a reunion.” They all looked to see Terry walking toward them with his wife, Zana. They had sort of become Ninlil's surrogate parents, and when they woke up that morning and saw the girl was gone, they knew they would find her here with Will.

John greeted Terry and Zana warmly.

“Looks like we can finally get this party started.” Everyone looked back where Don was standing on the ramp from the garage looking up at the sky. They turned and followed his gaze, and saw the sleek, black spaceship, the Jupiter 2.0 slowly and silently coming across the field at a low altitude.

“Coolest ship ever,” Penny said, and she and Will started walking toward where it was preparing to land. They both had reasons for meeting the ship.

As soon as it was on the ground they ran toward it as the others watched. The hatch opened and Robot walked down the ramp quickly, his destination in mind. Will ran up and hugged his friend around the chest, and they just held each other. Then Clark walked out, and he and Penny ran to each other. Gary walked out behind him, smiling.

Maureen and John were standing side by side watching. Maureen said, “when they were in grade school, I don’t think we ever envisioned this. On a planet in a different universe, standing in front of a space ship, Penny hugging her boyfriend, Will hugging his Robot.”

John put his arm around her. “Kind of hard to imagine having this crew over for a barbecue too,” he said. Maureen smiled and kissed her husband.

Judy was sitting inside the ship on the flight deck watching it all. She looked at Will, holding on to Robot. She thought about what the doctors told her back on Earth. Will could be suffering from psychosis, and he could have imagined a lot of the things that had happened to him. But these people were here for him. Warriors from different galaxies and different worlds. A Robot that he somehow made into a conscious being. A wild animal from an alien planet that had adopted her brother and protected him as fiercely as Robot or his family did. Yes, he could be imagining things that weren’t real. But _this_ was real. These people were here because they loved her brother. “Explain that Doctor,” she said, getting up to join the others.

They were sitting around the fire. Will and Judy had just told them all about the trip to Earth and what they had seen.

“And that’s all they said about this virus, and possible terrorist attack?” Gary asked.

“Yes,” Judy said. “It was almost like they were surprised we didn’t know about it. I don’t think they realized we were completely cut off from Earth for three years.”

“It’s strange,” Gary said.

“Why?” One of Brent’s soldiers asked.

“What’s the point?” Gary asked. “War’s over. Most of the world is just trying to survive now. Why would someone launch a terrorist attack after the virus?”

“Well, we killed a lot of people in that war,” Brent said. “Maybe someone just wasn’t ready to forget about it.”

“Vengeance and retribution require a long time. It is the rule.” Dr. Smith was just gazing into the fire. She had been quiet most of the night. They all looked at her now. Penny was the only one who knew she was quoting something, but she couldn’t remember where she had heard the line.

Will was sitting next to Nin and he stood up and started walking past them toward the field. “Where are you going?” Maureen asked.

“To find out what’s going on.”

He came back in a few minutes leading the two guards toward the fire. They had been in the Jeep all day. “This is Dan, and this is Mason.” Everyone greeted them and the two guards said, hi, looking kind of embarrassed. Will walked over to a table and handed them plates and said, “help yourselves. I’m not sure what any of it is, but everyone seems to like it.”

The two men looked at the grate swinging over the fire, full of meat and vegetables. “Best just to grab some stuff and eat,” Brent said, “And not ask what you’re eating. It all tastes good.”

The men were sitting in a couple of plastic chairs. Don took them glasses and poured some Scotch in them. “Enjoy, it’s my last bottle.”

The Robinsons all laughed. The others looking at them, not in on the joke.

“So, what happened on Earth?” John asked.

“What do you mean?” Dan asked.

“Virus? Then maybe a terrorist attack?”

“Well no one really knows. The virus hit two years ago. Millions of people died in downtown LA, and no way to save them. Finally, they just fenced in the contaminated areas to keep people out.”

“Does anyone live in the contaminated areas?” Will asked.

“He thought he saw a little girl over the fence,” Judy explained.

“No way,” Dan said. “Almost the entire population at ground zero, and for a kilometer all around, died in twenty four hours. A week later it was a dead zone inside the barrier fence. Then there was a terrorist attack. A dirty bomb contaminated the river and the city. We expect the area won’t be fit for habitation for years. It’s impossible you saw someone inside the barrier fence.”

“Does it make any sense that there was a terrorist attack in an area that was dying from a virus?” Will asked.

“Maybe just a coincidence,” Mason said. “They might not have known if there was any life after the virus."

Penny and Judy looked at each other, then Penny looked away.

Will didn’t say anything. Penny looked at him and gave him a thin smile. He smiled back, thinking he could always count on Penny, no matter what.

Almost everyone had left and headed back to the city. The Jupiter 2.0 was going to stay where it had landed. John and Maureen were watching their kids. Maureen looked at John and said, “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we should probably head to bed pretty soon.”

“You tired?” She asked. “Or missing me?” She smiled

“Both. But I figure Will and Nin are going to have to find a way to sneak off to his room. Penny and Clark are going to have to find a way to sneak off to her room or back to the other Jupiter. It’s tough with us sitting here.”

“We’re not supposed to be alright with that, you know,” She said, looking at the kids. “Well, Penny’s eighteen. But Will’s just a kid.”

“We should try to stop them?” John asked.

Maureen looked at Penny and Clark, laughing and talking. Then at Will and Nin, holding hands and talking quietly to each other. So young, she thought. But he had already had to grow up in so many ways.

“What are _you_ thinking?” John asked his wife.

“I’m thinking about Judy in the ice, and Penny floating through space in a storage container. And Will in that tree in a fire, and drifting away in space after closing the hatch, and the coma and what he’s dealing with now. Everything that’s happened to them has been because I thought coming to space would be better for them.”

John heard her voice crack as she held back tears. He took her hand.

“They shouldn’t be alive now.” She said. “Especially Will.” She watched him smiling at Nin, and saw her lean over and kiss him. “And who knows what’s going to happen to them next? I’ll be damned if I’m going to stop them from finding some happiness in all this.”

She stood up and John stood with her. “We’re going to turn in,” she announced.


	8. Chapter 8

Will was hugging Nin goodbye in the early evening. They stood in front of the Jupiter 2, Terry and Zana were waiting a few meters away as the kids bid farewell to each other. Bob and Dr. Smith had left to go back to the city earlier in the day. Don and Judy and Will had been here for five days, and the next morning they were driving back to the base in the city, then taking a transport back to the Resolute 2.

Will had asked Nin to stay until morning, but she said that Will needed to be with his family. Every night the two of them would wait for everyone to go to bed, then they would go to Will’s room. No one said anything about it, but Will didn’t want to treat his parents with disrespect, knowing that they might not really approve.

John and Maureen watched from the Flight Deck as Nin turned and walked away with Terry and Zana. Will stood for a long time, watching them walk away across the field. Then he sat down in one of the chairs near the fire. He was alone. “I’m going to go talk to him,” John said.

“Good luck.” Maureen smiled at her husband.

John walked out and sat beside his son. “Hi, Dad,” Will said.

“Hey, Will. You doing OK?”

“Yeah,” Nin and Terry and Zana were in the middle of the field now. They would pick up the road by the river before turning toward the city.

“You know Will,” John said. “I wasn’t around a lot. Especially the last three years before we left Earth. And then last year when you were gone. I missed a lot of the things a father should be around for. And some of the talks we probably should have had.”

“It’s OK dad. You did what you needed to do. I understand that.”

“I just want you to know, if you have anything you want to talk to me about, questions about anything, I’m here.”

“I know, Dad.”

Will didn’t say anything else for a while, then, “You know how Judy and Penny used to always make fun of me for not hearing anything when I was focused on something? Building a model or reading a book? They would say I could only do one thing at a time.”

“Yeah, I remember,” his dad said.

“Well, what they didn’t know is that there were certain key words that would get my attention. So with two older sisters talking about guys…and stuff…it was pretty easy to pick up a lot of things when they didn’t think I was paying any attention.” They both laughed.

“That’s not necessarily always the best way to learn about…stuff. So, I _am_ here,” John said.

“Thanks dad, I’ve always known that. The thing is, I love Nin so much, but I know we are young, and things aren’t supposed to last. So I keep asking myself what the point is. Will I come back some time just to find she has disappeared? This planet is so dangerous. And she’s like, just a year older than me, but she has lived so much more it seems like. It makes me wonder if she will just find someone a lot more like her and forget about me.”

“The sun is burning out?”

Will smiled. “Yeah.” He had said that to his parents and teachers when he was trying to tell them why his grades didn’t matter. In the grand scheme of things, it was all going to end someday anyway. He didn’t think his father had understood what he was saying, and he was glad to see he had.

“Will, here’s the thing about love and life. There’s no guarantees. And if you look at it that way, then you should throw all caution to the wind, grab everything you can out of the experience, and if things do end in a way that you don’t want them to, hold on to the good things. Remember the moments when things were perfect. Take them with you. Keep them. To me that’s what love is all about. It’s not the years, it’s the moments.”

Will sat in silence for a while. He could barely see Nin and the others now, at the far end of the field. Then he said, “You know Dad, right now I realize how much I missed while you were gone.”

John felt tears well up in his eyes. “It’s me who missed everything, Will. I wish I could have been there for the good things _and_ the bad things. It’s my greatest regret.”

Will looked at him. “Dad, if things had been different, if we had been a normal family, with you home from the office at five, and mom coming home from work at some lab in the evening, and we all sat around the dinner table at the same time, all of us together every day, I don’t think we would have been as strong a family as we are. Penny and I would have fought a lot more, because I was just her annoying little brother. Judy would have probably thought both me and Penny were a pain and would have done everything she could to avoid us. But that’s not what happened. If I had a bad dream, Penny would come to my room. If I was lonely or had a problem, Judy would drop everything she was doing to hang out with me. You were gone a lot, and mom worked so much, both of you trying to make sure we had a secure future. But it made us more than a family. It made us a tribe, like all the tribes on this planet. Where we all look out for each other.”

John looked at his son and smiled. “You’re going to make a great father someday, Will.”

Will turned and looked back out at the field, suddenly deeply sad. He knew he would never be a father.

They sat in silence for a while, then John said, “So, what do you want to do tonight Will? It’s your last night here for a while.”

“Can we play cards? All of us?”

John stood up and rubbed his head. “Sounds perfect, Will.” He turned and walked toward the Jupiter 2. As he walked past the flight deck, he noticed Maureen was watching Will from the window. He went in and stood beside her.

“How is he?” She asked.

“He’s OK. He knows he can talk to me. You did a great job with the kids while I was gone, Maureen.”

“You know better than that. Judy spent more time than I did with Will and Penny the last couple of years on Earth.”

“Will thinks that actually made us a better family. That he and his sisters are closer than they would have been if we had been a normal family.”

“Maybe,” Maureen said. “Is it fair to Judy? Is it fair to any of them?”

“I wouldn’t change anything about it.”

They turned to see Judy standing there. She walked over to them. “If we had been normal, I would never have known my brother and sister as well as I do. I think my life has been better because of it. You guys shouldn’t regret anything.”

“We’re parents,” Maureen said, “You won’t understand this until you have children of your own, but you will always have regrets.”

Judy looked at Will, sitting there alone in the early evening dusk. “Yeah, I guess. I have a lot of regrets with Will. I think, what happened last year, when the robots took him and then with the Haja, I kept blaming myself because of what I said to him about him not belonging in space. So, I have done everything I could to support him and the things he says. But I don’t know if that has been the right thing to do. What if he really needs me to push back, to challenge him?”

“Judy, we’ve been meaning to talk to you about that too,” Maureen said. “When you are back on Earth, we think you need to get him help. Even if he doesn’t agree. We need to find out if he really is having issues that he needs more professional help with.”

“He’s going to be really angry with me,” Judy said. “But it’s the right thing to do.” She watched as her brother picked up his guitar and began running his fingers across the strings.

“Hey,” Will looked up at Penny as she came and sat in the chair John had been in.

“Hey, Penny.”

“I guess we’re just going to go on this way,” She said. “You come back for a few days, then you leave for six weeks.”

“Yeah. Unless I can think of a way out of it,” he said.

“Yeah.”

Will looked at her and saw the tears in her eyes. “Penny, have you thought anymore about what I said? About going back to Alpha Centauri? Going back to school? Clark is there most of the time, and you have friends. It would be easy for you to find someone to stay with.”

“No, Will, I would be away from the family, and further away from you.”

“We go there every six weeks too, so I would see you as much as I do now,” he argued.

“Will, ever since we came here, everything changed. Whatever is going to happen to you, is going to happen here I think. I need to be here for you when it does. I’m sure of that.”

“It just seems like everyone’s life is on hold because of me,” Will said.

“Do you still think something is coming? You know, like you said when we were on Alpha Centauri? You were right then. The robots came. But now, after the battle, it seems like things have really been better here.”

He was silent, running his fingers over the guitar strings. Finally he said, “Yes, something is going to happen. And when it does I’m afraid no one will understand what it was and why it happened. I’m trying to find another way, but so far I haven’t come up with one. But I’m trying, and as long as I do what IA wants, and I can still help get colonists from Earth to Alpha Centauri, then I’m helping save lives. So right now, I need to keep doing that while I look for another way out of this.”

“Out of what Will? Working for IA?”

“No Penny. That’s minor to everything else that is going on. And no one would believe me if I told them. Not even you.”

“That’s unfair, Will. I have believed everything you have told me, I have stood by you, and listened to you when everyone else in the family thought you were just seeing things and hearing voices. You can’t shut me out.”

“The last time you told me that, Penny, I said I didn’t want to involve you in this. And then the robots came and took you, and you were dragged right in to my nightmare. I won’t do that again. If I find a way out, it won’t matter. If I don’t, then I need you to know there was a reason for what happened. And that I was clear headed and knew exactly what I was doing. You need to know, Penny. Because Judy will never understand, and she will hate me.”

“You’re scaring me Will, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, maybe nothing, Penny. I just can’t tell you anymore.”

“So what about this cave and the woman in a white room? You told Judy that was so important, then suddenly it just didn’t matter.”

“Penny, I can’t tell you about it. That’s all I can say. I’m sorry, but I just can’t.”

“Why not?” They looked back where Judy was walking out toward them. She took a seat next to Penny. “Will, if you think something happened, then you need to tell us. I left you with the Kur because I trusted what you told me, and it put you in danger again. But I still did it because I trusted you. Now you won’t trust us enough to tell us what you think…what happened.”

Will sighed. He was quiet for a long time, and his siblings just stared at him, waiting. “You will never believe me,” he finally said.

“Will, Goddamn it, stop telling me what I will and will not believe!” Penny said. “We are both here for you. Talk to us.”

He looked at them, sighed, then began talking. Will told them everything. About the white path, the steam rising up from the cavern below and the silver, molten metal. How it was used to make the robots and the engines somewhere deep in the mountains. Then he told them about the White Room, the Alternate Universe, and the duplicate Maureen and Will.

“I don’t know how long I was in the cave. It felt like hours, but when I came back out, the Guardian told me I had been gone for four days. Time was…different there.”

“So…you are saying they are from an anti-matter universe?” Judy asked.

“Well, from the way they see it, we are from an anti-matter universe. The opposite side of the same mirror is the way they describe it.”

“The presence that keeps appearing is the alternate you?” Penny said.

“You’re laughing at me,” Will said.

“I’m not laughing at all!” Penny argued.

“Neither am I,” Judy said.

“I know how it sounds,” Will said.

“So they would use the robots to make sure no other planet ever advanced enough to put them in danger?” Judy said. “And destroy us?”

“Yes.”

“Why would they think you would do this?” she asked.

“To save Penny. They told me that Ravi ja had her. That they had programmed robots to follow his orders and that she would die and Ravi ja would take over the planet if I didn’t connect with the robots to stop him. That’s why I asked if Ravi ja had brought robots. I knew he had them.”

“So you did?” Penny asked. “You connected with your robots, even though you knew the risks.”

“Yes.”

“Wait Will. You think all of this really happened, but you were willing to risk the destruction of Earth and Alpha Centauri to save Penny? That doesn’t make sense. We would all be dead.”

“No. They said the Amber planet would be spared. That we could make our homes here. In the Valley if we wanted. That I would be the Guardian. Of their world. Like the old woman in the cave is now.”

“And you would risk everyone else to save Penny?” Judy’s tone made it obvious that she didn’t believe him. “That’s like, the exact opposite of everything I know about you, Will.”

“Except the part about saving me,” Penny added.

“But, I thought I could do it, and that the voice…my other self…wouldn’t do what they wanted him to do. When I first felt him, and he spoke to me, he was very aloof, very mysterious. That has changed, now, he’s more like me. I mean, they are different, more formal. They speak like college professors or something, but he’s still a fourteen year old boy. And I could tell he really didn’t want to do this. So I risked it. And I was right. He turned control of the robots back over to me and let me decide. So I disbanded them and gave myself up…Judy and me up…to IA.”

“So, you say you talk to this other you now? More often than you used to?” Penny asked.

“I haven’t for a while. I was first able to when IA put me in the little room on Alpha Centauri. After three days I couldn’t handle it anymore, so he came to me at night. But he said that I reached out to him. And that was a big deal to them, because none of us have ever done that before. They have some kind of legend of one of us who could reach across to their world. And they feared that person, because their legends say this person would bring on their apocalypse. So they are afraid of him. Afraid of me.”

“Will…” Judy started but he kept talking.

“So the reason I won’t bring IA here is because they want to find the source of the robots, to control them. I feel responsible now. My counterpart didn’t do what they wanted him to do. So now I feel like I have to protect them. To be the Guardian, even if it isn’t the way they wanted me to."

“But Will, it doesn’t makes sense. If they make the robots, or have the Kur make them, why not just build an army to destroy us?”

“I asked them that. The woman said that the robots are never programmed to attack us. They defend themselves. Robot was defending himself on the Resolute. He went to the Resolute to get the engine, but when he was attacked he fought back. He didn’t go to attack. And, to build enough robots, programmed to attack humans would take many years. The Kur build the robots, the robots build the engines and their ships. Maybe on this planet, I don’t know. But at least in this solar system, I think. But that all takes a long time. They already have thousands of robots in our world, scattered throughout the universe, watching and recording everything about us, and relaying the information to them through the White Room. If I connected with the robots, and my counterpart could take over, he could get me to connect with the other robots on other planets. There would be thousands of robots able to attack Alpha Centauri and Earth.”

For the first time though, Will caught himself wondering about that. Everything he knew about this alternate world, the other side of the mirror, they spent hundreds, even thousands of years working on this problem. But suddenly, they seemed to be in a mad dash to end the threat of the other world. He supposed it could be because he had reached into their world, as they told him, but something told him there was more to their sudden sense of urgency.

“How many other planets?” Penny asked.

“They told me there were a few hundred planets in our universe with human life. So, right now, I’m trying to keep IA from bringing all of their people here, and trying to save as many people from Earth as possible, and trying to figure out how to escape all this so our family can be together again.”

He stopped talking and Penny and Judy looked at each other. Then Judy got up and gave him a hug. “Like I told you, Will, we’ll deal with this together. I love you.”

She turned and walked toward the Jupiter 2, giving Penny a look as she did.

Penny knew Judy wanted her to stay and talk to their brother alone. She said, “We’ll be in in a little while.”

When she was gone, Will said, “She doesn’t believe me.”

“Will, you have to know how bizarre all this sounds.”

“Any more bizarre than a Robot becoming my friend and being able to read my thoughts?”

“Yes. It’s weirder than that.”

“OK, it is.” He agreed.

They sat in silence for a little while, then Penny said, “Will, are you sure? You’re sure you didn’t imagine it all?”

“How can someone say that for sure? I mean, I know it happened. But if I _am_ crazy, then I would think it happened, even if it didn’t, wouldn’t I?”

“What are you saying, Will? Do you think you imagined it?”

He looked at her and there were tears in his eyes. “I hope so, Penny.”

She stood and went over to him and knelt down and hugged him without saying anything else.

When Penny walked in to the Jupiter 2, she saw Judy was on the flight deck, looking out where Will was still sitting.

She walked up to her and said, “Judy, you’re right. We have to get him help.”

Judy turned and hugged Penny, then realized her little sister was crying.


	9. Chapter 9

_Inanna’s Journal, May_

_The orchards and the crops are going to provide bountiful harvests this year, for the first time since we came here. The Valley has proven to be everything and more than what I had learned through the myths._

_And the robot came back. I hadn’t seen it since we first came to the Valley, but I will occasionally take the walk down through tunnel, back to the ravine where I first saw him. He has remained a mystery to me. Why was he here? Why did he show us the tunnel? Yes, I have begun calling it a “he.” There is something about him that seems masculine._

_This time he was standing in the ravine looking up at me when I came from the tunnel exit on to the path. I stood and watched him as he looked back, then started walking toward me. I was frightened like before, but the robots had never appeared dangerous, and he didn’t harm us when he saw Bob and me standing here before. So I stood waiting._

_The robot walked up the trail until he stood in front of me. Then he walked past me and into the tunnel. I followed him._

_We walked for an hour. We had to be half way back to the house when he stopped, then turned to face the wall. I didn’t know what he was doing. I could see nothing on the wall or any reason he would have stopped there. Then he pushed against the side, creating an opening into another tunnel going off the side of the main one. I followed him in. Three hours later the tunnel opened in to a wide cavern. I shined my light across the tunnel, and when the robot saw what I was doing, his face shield turned white, and he Illuminated the entire cavern._

_It appeared to be a laboratory of some kind, but it had only one item in it. In the middle of the large cavern was a horizontal cylinder, resting atop two pedestals, or saddles. It was about three meters long, and a meter in circumference. It’s casing was glass, or at least see through. Inside the cylinder were three long tubes, and at the end, on one side of the cylinder sat an orb, a meter long, and perhaps half a meter in circumference and oval shaped. The orb seemed to be separate from the cylinder. As if had been placed at the end of the cylinder and connected, but could be removed._

_I am not a scientist and had no idea what I was looking at or why the robot would have brought me here. I walked around the cavern, and then noticed that there were equations on one flat section of wall. I took several photos of the wall and the cylinder to take back to Bob. It was getting late, and I looked at the robot and told him I was going back the way I came. He looked at me, then turned and walked toward the opposite end of the cavern, where he moved another panel in the wall and disappeared down another tunnel._

_I was torn with wanting to follow the robot and wanting to return to the safety of the valley. In the end, my fears got the best of me and I turned from the cavern and went back to the safety of home._

Maureen turned to the next page, but it had been torn out. She began flipping through the rest of the pages, but now saw that many of them had been torn out, many more were blank.

She stood up from her bed where she had been lying and walked to the galley, where John was sitting by himself. “When are we going to talk about the Valley, John?”

“We? Remember this is my sphere.”

“When you go I need to go too.”

“You spent weeks telling me you don’t want me involved and now you want me to take you with me?”

“First of all, John, you were right. We do owe it to them for what they did for the kids. And secondly there has been a change. Some information in Inanna’s journal, but part of it is missing.”

“But what’s it about?” John asked.

“I don’t want to say until I have more information. So, when can we plan the attack on the Valley?”

“We can plan it in a few days. We can get everyone here. But it would be weeks before we move on the Valley.”

“Can you stay in the city with Terry and Zana for a few days while you plan it?"

“I guess, but why?”

“I need to go back to Alpha Centauri first. I want to see Ben. I need to take the Jupiter 2. Robot will be here for a couple of weeks until Gary and Clark need to go back to Alpha, so I will take him and go back for a couple of days. And…I’ll see if Penny will go. I need to spend some time with her.”

Penny walked on to the flight deck as Maureen finished the sentence. “What’s going on?” She asked.

“Want to take a quick trip across the universe with me?”

“Why not?” Penny said. 

Robot was in the engine room, and Maureen and Penny were on the flight deck. “Want to actually learn how to fly this thing correctly?” Maureen asked her daughter.

“I did OK,” She said. “The liftoff was a little hairy. So was the landing. And it was a little difficult to keep it on course. OK, yeah. Why don’t you show me how to do it the right way?”

“Deal,” Maureen smiled. She couldn’t remember the last time she had gone anywhere or done anything with just Penny. It seemed, as Penny grew older, their differences separated them more and more. Maureen was a scientist, and everything she did was based on the scientific method: observing and testing and questioning and testing again before finally arriving at a conclusion.

Penny, on the other hand, like most people who leaned toward literature and poetry, was a dreamer. And a believer. Not like Will, who seemed to believe in the inherent good of people and had the unyielding belief that things would work out in the end.  
Penny was less likely to trust people, take them at their word, look for the good in them. But she had the same faith and hope in her family that Will had always had for everyone. Or at least he used to be that way.

Maureen thought this would be a great opportunity to bond with her youngest daughter.

The Jupiter landed late in the evening, and Maureen called Ben and asked when they could meet. He was surprised to hear from her, and even more surprised when he found out she had come to Alpha Centauri just to meet with him. When she swore him to secrecy, he told her he assumed that without her stating it, and said he would see her in the morning. Maureen wanted to see if he agreed with her hypothesis on Inanna’s journal, then figure out the next steps. She figured they would be on Alpha Centauri for the next three days before returning to the Amber planet.

They had received permission to land the Jupiter 2 back in their old location by the lake, so Penny and Maureen spent the evening out by the Refuge, which gave Maureen a perfect opportunity to talk to her daughter.

“So, you and Clark seem to get along well,” Maureen said.

Penny knew this was coming. “Yes. I like him a lot. He’s different, smart, and kind. He reminds me of Will in a lot of ways."

“That’s great, Penny, do you think you are in love with him?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I used to think I was in love with Vijay, but now I guess that was just an infatuation. With Clark, it seems different. But I don’t know if I would say I’m in love with him.”

“Does he treat you well?”

“Absolutely.”

“Do you think he’s in love with you?” Her mother asked.

“I don’t know. Neither of us have said that to each other. The thing is, I think we are both realists. He’s got a whole life ahead of him with Alpha Galactic Agency. So I think we just try to have fun when we are together, and not think too much about the future.”

“I know how that feels. When Grant and I got together, I knew that we would spend a large part of our lives apart. He was going to go to space for five years, and I was going to be working on the Alpha project on Earth. Back then, there wasn’t any thought of me going to space. But it was worth the risk. If I had known that he was going to disappear, maybe I wouldn’t have let the relationship go as far as it did.”

“That would have been a huge mistake.”

“Why?”

“No Judy.”

“Well, you’re right. I guess I regretted it in the beginning, because I thought I would end up raising her alone, because my lifestyle didn’t lead to a lot of time for relationships, but then your father came along, and it all changed.”

“He was great with Judy, wasn’t he?” Penny asked.

“Yes. From the very beginning, she was his daughter one hundred percent. And she grew up to be like him more than either you or Will.”

“That used to bother Will. He thought she kind of took his place.”

“Really? Why didn’t he ever tell me that?” Maureen asked.

“You know, Don told me one time that siblings who grow up together, like Will and I did, will always share things that no one else knows about. Will wrote a letter to me when he was planning to leave Alpha Centauri and go back to the Amber Planet by himself. He wanted me to be less critical of Judy, and explained how he used to feel when he was young. I already knew it though. I was with him so much I could usually figure out what he was feeling.”

“Well, he hid it well,” Maureen said. “I always thought he worshiped Judy.”

“Oh, he did. He still does. Judy’s his hero. She always has been. I think that’s why it always tore at him that he wanted to be mad at her sometimes, but she would always do something, and he couldn’t stay mad at her. She _is_ pretty annoying that way.”

Maureen laughed. “You didn’t seem to have any problem being mad at her.”

“Well, Will isn’t as hot headed as I am.”

“That’s for sure.” They both laughed. “So, are you giving any thoughts on your future?”

“Not until my brother is safe and my family is together.” She stood up and hugged her mother. “I’m going to sleep mom. Is it OK if I take the Chariot in the morning, I want to see some friends.”

“Of course. Ben is coming by in the morning, so I have a way around if I need to go anywhere. “Goodnight sweety.”

Penny laid down on her bed and tried to fall asleep, but as soon as she did, she was thinking about the jungle, arrows flying through the trees, and the eyes of a young teenage boy, a look of shock on his face. She had fired the laser into him, hitting him in the stomach. He had grabbed the wound then looked down and saw the burning hole. He dropped to his knees and looked up at her, his eyes full of fear. He said something to her in a language she didn’t understand, then reached out a hand to her. She knew he was asking for help, but all she could do was look at him. He fell face first in front of her.

Then the young boy’s face turned into Will. She saw him on his knees, in a small cage, clutching on to the bars, looking out at a mountain range. He was crying, his face pressed tightly against the bars, looking for someone, anyone, to come and help him. Let him out of the cage. Or maybe just talk to him.

“Goddamn it!” Penny yelled out loud. She looked at her radio. It was morning. She didn’t think she had even slept. She took a shower, then walked down to Galley where her mother was.

“Good morning, mom.”

“Good morning. You sleep well?”

“Yes,” Penny lied. “When is Ben going to get here?”

“In an hour or so.”

“OK, I’m taking off.” She hugged her mom then went down to the garage and started the Chariot and drove off.

It was just before eight, and the students were driving in. Since it was so large, she parked the Chariot in the back of the parking lot. Except for the Military and some maintenance vehicles, everyone drove the small Ecars.

She kept the engine running and watched until he pulled up in his small Ecar and got out. She put the Chariot in drive and drove up beside him as he walked toward the school building.

“Hi, Vijay,” she said.

“Hi, Penny!” He was surprised, but obviously happy to see her. “What are you doing here?”

“Here for a few days with my mom. Stopped to say hi.”

“Where are you going now?” He asked her.

“I don’t know. My mom is meeting with Ben, I’m just going to kill some time. I thought I might go see if I could find Will’s friend Rose. I just hadn’t messaged her yet.”

“Want to hang?” He asked.

“What about class?”

“I’ll skip,” Vijay said.

“You? You will skip a class? Have you ever skipped a class before in your life?”

“No, but I didn’t mean class, I meant I would skip the rest of the day.”

“Seriously, Vijay? To hang with me?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen you in months, and…things didn’t end well between us. I hate that.”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have been such an asshole,” Penny said.

“What did I do that was so wrong?”

“Come on. I needed you when Will was going through so much, and you just disappeared.”

“Yeah. I did. I’m sorry, Penny.”

“I’m sorry too, Vijay, but that’s not good enough. It was about Will, not me. You can treat me like shit if you want, but don’t treat my brother like shit.”

“Have I ever treated you like shit, Penny?”

“No. You haven’t.” She admitted.

“And you’re right about Will. I didn’t handle that right. When we heard about the terrorism charge, we didn’t know how to take it. My dad and I, I mean. My mom was furious at us both for not standing up for your brother. But my dad is always thinking politics and my future. And I guess I wasn’t thinking straight. I’m sorry.”

“OK. I guess we can hang. I hope your dad doesn’t send a search party out for you though when you disappear from school,” she grinned at him. He opened the door and got in.

They stopped in town and bought some sandwiches and drinks, then Vijay directed her to drive out past Alpha into the country. After thirty minutes of driving, he told her to take a path between some low hills and a glen of woods. He showed her where to pull over. She parked the Chariot and said, “Where are we going?”

“I’ll show you,” He said.

He led her between two small hills, then through some woods, then they came out on a ledge, far above the large lake, with the town in the distance.

“Wow,” She said. “How did you find this?”

“Some of the kids come out here sometimes.”

They hiked along a trail that wound around the hills, with the lake far below. After an hour he said, “You hungry?”

“Starved.”

They sat on a ledge overlooking the lake and Vijay took the sandwiches and some water out of his backpack.

“So, are you still with Clark?”

“Um…define ‘with.”

“Dating him of course?” Vijay said.

“I guess. We see each other when we can, but he isn’t around a lot. He’s with Gary on the new Jupiter. Robot was with them and they were back here for a while. They are back on the Amber Planet now. They’ve been mapping the rest of the planet. Gary Sargent thinks it might be the most important planet in the Universe.”

“Why?” Vijay asked around a bite of fake turkey sandwich.

“The robots. They come from that system, maybe from the Amber planet.” She wasn’t about to tell him what Will had told her and Judy about the cave. “And IA seems to be really interested in it. They keep taking more and more people there. They’ve set up in the old compound where the people from the Fortuna were. So Gary and Clark are kind of watching them. I think something is going on between IA and the Alpha Galactic Agency. They don’t trust each other.”

“Yeah, my dad said something about that too. It’s like IA has been sort of the force here, but there has been some disagreement with them and the Council now. Did I tell you my dad is Vice President of the council?”

“Congratulations,” she said. He heard the snark in her voice.

“I’m proud of him,” Vijay sounded annoyed.

“I know you are. And he helped us a lot when we had to get off the Resolute. I just get tired of politics.”

“Is that what happened with us?”

“What happened with us is that my brother was in court trying to avoid going to jail, and you didn’t go to support him. If that was because you were worried about a future in politics, then yes, it’s what happened to us. If there was some other reason, then you have to tell me.”

“Yeah. That’s what happened. I guess I just thought I needed to stay away. But I was wrong. I don’t know what I want to do anymore, but it’s not politics.”

“Really?” She asked. She was surprised.

“Yeah. I mean, things don’t seem any different here than on earth. I love my dad, but he’s right back where he was. It’s like, he’s not just my dad, he belongs to everyone, you know? I’m probably sounding like a jealous little kid,” Vijay said.

“No, actually, you’re sounding more adult than you ever have.” She smiled. “So what will you do?”

“I don’t know. I’ve always liked computers. I’ve been thinking about that. Something with computers anyway.”

“That suits you, Vijay.”

“What about you, Penny?”

“I still want to be a writer of course. I keep collecting material for that I guess with all the shit we’ve been through the last three years. But until Will is safe from all this, I just have to be there for him.”

“Do you believe everything he tells you?”

“I don’t know Vijay. He doesn’t even know for sure. Judy is going to take him to the hospital at Los Alamitos for a while. They were there a few weeks ago and he slipped off and went to our old neighborhood. He said it was terrible there now. And since the virus so much of it is fenced off. And Will swore he saw a girl inside the quarantined area. He probably didn’t really see anything at all.”

Vijay didn’t say anything, he just looked like he was thinking about something.

“What, Vijay?”

“What if he did see a girl over the barrier?”

“Why would you say that?” She asked.

“Something. It might be nothing. But after they came back with the 25th group, there was a meeting with the Council. I heard my dad talking to my mom that night. I guess there was a big argument at the council. They asked some people from IA to come and testify about the dirty bomb attack that happened after the virus, and IA refused. They finally wrote an email just explaining everything they knew and who they thought it was.”

“And?”

“And my dad didn’t buy it. He said, why wouldn’t they come and testify if they had nothing to hide?”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Penny asked. “What if Will was right?”

“I don’t know, but let me see if I can find out anything.”

“Is that some attempt to get me to talk to you again sometime?” Penny asked.

“You mean you don’t want to?”

“Maybe,” Penny said. “The thing is, I really liked you Vijay. And I was really hurt. So I have mixed feelings. Sometimes I just think, we had fun as kids, and then we moved on like everyone does. Other times I think, we never really got to see how far our relationship could go. I mean, we met when we crash landed on an alien planet. That’s a pretty fucking cool start to a book, but a pretty shitty start to a relationship.”

He laughed. “Yeah. Well, if you want, I would like to at least start again at being friends.”

“Me too, Vijay.” She smiled at him.

They stood up and started hiking again.


	10. Chapter 10

“Well, Ben? Is it what I think it is?” He had pulled up at the Jupiter 2 an hour after Penny left.

  
“It’s hard to tell by this, but it sure sounds like it. We need to find this place.”

  
“John is meeting with Terry and Brent and Bob. They’re planning how to take the Valley back.”

  
“How do you feel about that?” Ben asked.

  
“Well, obviously I’m worried about him. But how can I tell him no? I mean, these people kept the kids alive, and were willing to die for them. If John can actually help them get the Valley, and they have a safe place to live their lives, how can I say no to that?”

  
“So, you plan to accompany them?”

  
“Yes. John would rather I wait until it is all over, then join him. The thing is, if this is what we think it is, there is nothing more important than this discovery. What do you think?"

  
“I think I’m going back with you,” Ben said.

When they got back to the school it was almost dark. Penny pulled the Chariot up to Vijay’s Ecar.

  
“Penny, it was a great day. I’m glad we got to see each other. And I’m glad we’re going to be friends again.”

  
She looked at him, then leaned over and kissed him. She smiled at him.

  
“Um…I didn’t expect that,” He said.

  
“Don’t you kiss your friends?” She asked with a grin.

  
“Not like that,” he said.

An hour later Penny pulled up at the Jupiter 2.

  
She looked for her mom, but couldn’t find her, then she looked out the window and saw her sitting by the lake, Robot standing next to her. Penny took a bottle of wine out of the cabinet, opened it, and took two glasses out by the lake.

  
She handed one to her mom, sat the other one down, then hugged Robot.

  
“Now this is how it is, I drink with my daughter?” Maureen said with a smile.

  
“I have to talk to you, mom.”

  
“Oh, well…that’s a surprise. Where did you go?”

Penny told her about hiking with Vijay, then said, “Something happened.”

“What honey? Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m real OK. Which is why I’m not.”

“What’s going on, Penny?”

“Something happened with Vijay.”

  
“Oh. Um… “saw” wasn’t really what you meant was it?”

  
“No. When I took him back to the school, we sat there for a while, one thing led to another.”

  
“Oh.”

  
“That’s it?”

  
“Well, honey, I guess that’s not so unusual at your age, it’s just you didn’t have that opportunity on earth. So a Chariot on an alien planet is a little different, I guess, but other than that, it’s pretty normal. Besides, you’re eighteen. What am I going to do, ground you for having sex?”

  
“We didn’t have sex, but made out. What about Clark Mom?"

“Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t know how you guys describe your relationship, if you’re exclusive or not.”

  
“We like each other a lot. But we haven’t really talked about that part. He’s just such a good guy. Now I feel so guilty.”

  
“That’s because you’re a good person, Penny. I would be disappointed if you didn’t feel guilty, but you’re eighteen…will be nineteen soon. So things are going to happen. I think if you’re just honest with everyone involved, you will be OK.”

  
“So I have to tell Clark what happened?”

  
“No, I didn’t say that. And really nothing happened. You just need to think about it, and if you feel that’s the right thing to do, then tell him. But maybe it’s just a matter of asking him where he sees the two of you going. You might find out he isn’t any surer than you are. If that’s the case, don’t slam any doors shut, and have fun. But just be honest. If you plan to see someone else, let him know.”

  
“OK, thanks, Mom. Really. I’ll think about it.”

  
“You know, Penny, maybe we are supposed to be a little more conservative than we are. I mean, we could tell what was going on with Will and Nin, and you and Clark, but what are we supposed to do? My decision to bring us all to space and what happened after, meant you and Will never had a chance at a normal childhood. This is just part of growing up. Were we supposed to try to protect you from the only parts of growing up that are natural?”

  
“I don’t know, Mom. I think we are all winging this. I mean, it’s not like there is manual on how to raise kids on an alien planet.”

  
“Well, maybe you can write one.” They both laughed.

  
“I’m going to bed mom. I have to get up early.”

  
“Why?”

  
“Vijay and I are going canoeing.”

  
“You mean, you wanted to talk to me because you felt guilty, but you knew you were seeing him again tomorrow?”

  
“Yeah. I needed you to make me feel better about it. But I was still going to see him. It worked.” She smiled and gave her mom a hug and walked toward the Jupiter.

  
Maureen sat and looked out at the lake and said, “There is no manual anywhere for this.”

The next evening, Penny found Maureen by the lake again. She walked out and sat down in a chair across from her.

  
“Well?” Maureen said.

  
“We had a good day. Actually, it was a great day. Now I’m just more confused.”

“I hate to say this Penny, but it’s sort of refreshing seeing you go through normal teenage problems for a change.”

“So, this is you cheering me up…right?”

Maureen smiled. “Sorry, but you know what I mean. I still have so much guilt about what you kids have had to go through.”

"Yeah. But you did the best you could, and you knew that we couldn’t stay on Earth. Especially what Will told us about what’s going on there now.”

“Yeah, the problem is, we really don’t know how much of what he said is factual, Penny.”

  
“You too, mom? After everything we’ve learned, why does this whole family doubt Will all the time?”

  
“Judy said _you_ had your doubts,” Maureen said.

  
“About some really strange parts maybe.”

  
“What strange parts? Judy didn’t tell us everything.”

  
“Good. And I’m not going to either. You and dad have things you don’t tell us, and the three of us have things we don’t tell you either. If Will wanted you to know everything he would tell you.”

  
“Penny, I get that. But we’re all just trying to help your brother.”

  
“Yeah, you remember when you and dad went to the school and met with the principal and decided to kick Will out of Flight Training? You thought you were doing the right thing, but you made that decision without consulting him. He’s not a normal child, you should know that by now. Flight Training was so important to him because he knew someday he might have to return to the Amber Planet by himself. He couldn’t tell you why it was so important, but in the end, he was right. I almost died because none of us believed him. And I didn’t die, but things happened I will never forget.” She thought of the three men walking into her cell.

  
“I know, Penny, but we still have to make decisions as parents for him.”

  
“Of course, but I wonder now if any of it would have happened if all of us would have sat down with Will together and asked him about it and offered our support. As a family. We have a great family. All of us have our own talents, and together we fucking kick ass. But we keep letting Will deal with all of this on his own, and if it seems strange or hard to believe we fall back on the whole, 'he’s just a child,' thing. Have you just thought about how we could have saved him from so much had we just listened to him? When he was leaving with the robots he told us exactly how he had figured it all out. And in the end, none of us could argue with him. Because he was right. The thing is, he’s smarter than all of us. We don’t know if what he is saying is right or not. But we owe it to him to listen to him, and give him the benefit of the doubt. And that’s what I’m going to tell him when he comes back.”

  
“Penny, you know everything he is going through might be in his head, don’t you? I mean some of the problems were obviously real, but he’s changed a lot, and we need to get him some help.”

  
“I know that, I talked to him before they left. He isn’t sure either. Judy said she’s going to try to get him help.”

  
“She is. She’s going to have him committed when they are on Earth.”

“Committed!”

  
“Yes. Just for one rotation. Six weeks. We don’t think Will would go along with it on his own. Judy spoke to Hastings and got his approval. He wasn’t happy about it, but agrees that if Will is really going to be a help to IA, they need him healthy…physically and mentally.”

  
“First, I don’t trust Hastings and you shouldn’t either. Something is going on if he agreed to that. But I can’t believe you could do this without Will knowing about it!”

  
“Penny, think about it. There is so much going on with your brother, we don’t know how he would react if we told him.”

  
“Well I know how he will react to this, Mom. But he will be devastated. Especially if Judy is doing it. He trusts her!”

  
“You think he’s going to be angry?”

  
“Angry? Knowing Will, he will get angry for like two seconds, then he will just be hurt. And he hurts deeply. He carries it with him. And he keeps it inside.”

“I don’t know what else to do, Penny. We’re worried about him.”

  
“I know mom, I am too, but I can’t believe this! You know Will. Whether he wanted to or not, he would have done it if he knew we all wanted him to. I would have asked him to commit himself. He would have done it for me. This is just not right. Tricking him? You guys are putting him back in a cage. His own family! He won’t be able to trust anyone after this.”

  
“Penny…”

  
“No. This is just so fucked up.” She stood up and stomped off.

Maureen sighed. “That went well,” she said to herself.

  
Then she heard the engine of the Chariot. She called Penny on her wrist radio. “Penny! Penny! Where are you going?”

  
Penny looked down at her radio, reached over and powered it off. Fuck them all, she thought. Fuck her mom and dad who were right back to trying to help everyone else to the detriment of their family. Fuck Judy, who was so sure she knew how to fix Will she had no problem hurting him again. And fuck Will too and his “I have to save the world” fixation. She was tired of all of it.

  
She wanted to see Clark, but he was back on the Amber planet. “Fuck him too.” She said aloud. His future was all planned. Must be nice, knowing exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life. She turned the chariot on to the main road and kept driving with no plan in mind. Twenty minutes later she pulled up in front of the Dhar’s house and parked across the street.

  
She messaged Vijay. “Come outside.”

  
He walked out a minute later. He saw the Chariot and walked to the driver’s side, but Penny pointed to the passenger side door and he opened it and climbed in.

  
“Penny, what…”

  
“Don’t talk, Vijay.” She took his face in her hands and kissed him.

  
“But Clark…”

  
“Vijay, you say anything else, you’re going to talk me out of this.” She climbed over into the back seat and pressed the electric control, lowering it. She reclined and looked at him.

  
“Penny…”

  
“You have one more chance. Either come back here with me, or say another word.”

  
He opened his mouth, then closed it and crawled over the seat and laid down beside her. She turned to him, took his face in her hands again and kissed him passionately.

There was a knock on the window. They were lying under a utility blanket on the reclined seat. They opened their eyes and Prisha was standing there. The sun was up. Neither of them said anything, they just looked back at her and waited.

“You staying for breakfast, Penny?” Prisha asked.

“Um…sure.”

Prisha called Maureen later that morning. “Maureen, I just want you to know Penny is here with us.”

  
“Prisha, thank you so much!” Maureen said. “I’ve been calling her all night! She had the Chariot and I had no way of looking for her.”

  
“She’s fine Maureen. I have a question. Would it be alright if she stays here for a while? The Resolute will be back in a couple of weeks and she can go back to the Amber Planet then if she wants. But we’ll make sure she’s safe. She’s just…upset.”

“If that’s what she wants, she’s eighteen and I won’t try to stop her. Will you ask her to call me? I’m leaving in a while with Ben.”

“I have tried to, but she said she doesn’t want to talk to you. I will ask her again since you’re leaving. But she’ll be safe.”

  
“Thank you so much Prisha.”

An hour later Maureen’s radio buzzed. “Penny! Thanks for calling.”

  
“I just called because Prisha convinced me that space travel is still dangerous. So I wanted to tell you to be safe. I love you.”

  
“I love you too Penny. Are you going to go back to school?”

  
“No. The Resolute 2 will be back here at the end of the month and I’m going to do what you and Dad should be doing. I’m going to get my brother away from IA and make sure he’s safe, then I’ll decide what I’m going to do. Bye mom.”

  
“Penny! Penny!” Her radio was off.


	11. Chapter 11

Judy and Will had come back to Earth for the second time in three years. Judy had met with Hastings before leaving and convinced him that Will really needed to spend some time at the hospital after returning to Earth. Hastings had seemed ready to protest, but then Judy thought he gave in too easily. She decided she would be by Will’s side as much as possible. She never trusted Hastings, and so far he had not disappointed her.

  
They didn’t tell Will that the captured robot was on the ship. They knew that he wouldn’t be happy about how they controlled him with the crate, the EMF and the stunners. Judy felt guilty about this as well, but she just kept telling herself that she was doing it for Will’s benefit.

  
As she sat across from her brother on the transport, he looked at her and smiled. So trusting, she thought. And here she was about to betray him. So easy to justify the things we do to our loved ones in the name of helping them, she sighed.

  
Once on the base, they were taken to the hospital and then to a conference room where they were met by Dr. Terrell and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Phillips. Judy filled out several pages of paperwork while they spoke to Will and asked him about his headaches and the black outs. Then a nurse stuck her head in the room. “Will?”

  
“Yes,” he stood up and looked at Judy.

  
“Go on, Will. I need to speak to the doctors for a few minutes. I will see you pretty soon.”

  
Will followed the nurse down the hall, then up an elevator, then through an unmarked door. Once inside he noticed this was a different wing. There were no patients in the hall or nurses and doctors walking through like in a normal hospital, and he heard someone yelling. Not like he was in pain, just a continuous grunting yell, then a pause, then it would start again. Weird, Will thought.

  
The nurse led him to a room where she gave him a gown and a plastic bag. “Take off all your clothes and put them in the bag and get in bed. I will be back in a few minutes to check on you.”

  
“Where are they doing the tests?” Will asked. “Last time it was in a room downstairs. It was in the main part of the hospital.”

  
“That’s above my pay grade.” She turned and walked out.

  
She’s having a bad day, Will thought.

  
He took his clothes off and put them in the bag, then put the gown on and crawled in the bed. There was no TV, no pictures on the wall. It was a small private room with one window. The door opened and the nurse came in, looked in the plastic bag, then picked it up and turned to walk out.

  
“Hey, those are my clothes!” The nurse ignored him, and Will said, “When are they coming to do the tests?”

  
She left the room without responding.

  
Weird, he thought. He sat for over an hour, but no one came in. He got out of bed and walked across to the window and looked out. He was on the top floor, maybe twelve stories up. There were four bars on the window. That’s strange, he thought. Then something dawned on him. He quickly walked to the door and tried to push it open. It was locked. He pounded on the door. He walked over to the end table by his bed, looking for something to call the nurse. He looked on the bed, but he found nothing. Then he looked at the camera up in the corner of the wall.

  
He walked over in front of it and started waving with both hands back and forth. “I want to see my sister! Hey! I want to see Judy!”

  
After twenty minutes he laid back down and started thinking about what to do. Obviously, they planned to keep him locked up for some reason. Judy would be worried to death. He decided he had to do something. He looked up at the camera. He knew they could see him. OK, just be calm and wait, he told himself. Then he had another idea. He grabbed the blanket and threw it over the camera, then waited by the door. 

  
A few minutes went by and he saw the knob turn. As the door pushed open he ran in to the nurse. He shoved her aside and was in the hall before she could react. He heard her yelling after him.

  
He sprinted down the hall the way they had led him in. He heard an alarm begin blaring as he threw open a double door. There was a large nurse’s area with a square desk in front of the elevators, but he thought he could make it past. Just as he got to the desks the elevators opened and two large guards came out. He turned to run back the way he had come.

  
“Stop!” He heard, then footsteps as the guards ran after him. There was an equipment cart against the wall, and he grabbed it as he ran by, pulling it into the hall behind him. He heard clanging and cursing as the guards fell over it as he ran back through the double doors, and into his nurse who was in the hall. He shoved her out of the way and ran toward an exit sign at the end of the hall. He heard the double doors fly open and knew the guards were sprinting after him.

  
Will made it to the exit, pushed the door open and saw it was the entrance to a stair case. He started running down the steps. He was on the twelfth floor, and had to get to the first floor to hopefully find Judy still in the administration office trying to find out where they were keeping him.

  
As he hit the next level he heard the door above him open. He picked up his pace and could hear them above, talking on radios. He knew other guards would be coming up from below or waiting at the bottom. On the eighth floor he exited into the hall and began quickly walking down the corridor. The alarm was still blaring but he didn’t see any guards. He passed a few nurses and doctors, but he ignored them, looking straight ahead, and they didn’t try to stop him. He made it to the elevator and hit the button for the first floor.

  
He watched the lights at the top, hoping no one got on the elevator. He was sweating now, and he knew he would look suspicious. He was ready to run as the number at the top passed the second floor. He assumed guards would be at the bottom but if he surprised them he thought he could get past. The administration offices were just a few meters down the hall. He just hoped Judy was still there.

  
As soon as the elevator stopped and the door opened he charged through it, knocking down one guard and brushing past another. He heard them yelling and then their footsteps as they ran after him. He turned right and flung the door open to the executive offices and ran into a lobby. There was a long desk at the front with two women and a man behind computers. There were a few people in the waiting room, but his sister wasn’t here.

  
He ran to the desk and the people stood up and backed away. “I need to see Judy Robinson! Is she here?”

  
“Calm down,” one of the women said.

  
“She’s my sister and I need to see her!”

  
Then he heard the doors slide open behind him. He was leaning over the counter when he felt them grab his arms. “No!” He tried twisting free, but they held him tight. “Let me go! I’m not crazy! Let me go!”

  
He managed to spin around and now more guards were coming in. “Leave me alone! I don’t belong here! I need my sister!”

  
“Calm down,” one of the guards said as Will twisted in their arms, struggling frantically to free himself.

  
“Let me go! I want my sister!”

  
“Will.”

  
He looked back and Judy was standing in the lobby next to Dr. Terrell and Dr. Phillips. The guards looked at her and relaxed their grips and he pulled free and ran to her. “Judy! We have to get out of here! They locked me in a room!” He was holding her by the shoulders. But she was just looking back at him.

He felt the guards grab his arms again and they pulled them behind his back. “Stop! Judy help me!”

  
He was twisting and struggling with the guards. They had turned him toward the door, but he was fighting them all the way. Then he heard his sister’s voice again, “Will.” She said it very calmly and he felt her hand on his shoulder, touching him softly.

  
He stopped struggling and turned to her. The guards held him but stopped dragging him. He saw his sister’s face and he knew. He just looked at her, then sighed and tears filled his eyes. “Why Judy?”

  
“Will, you need help.”

  
“But Judy. If you had asked me, I would have agreed to stay. I wouldn’t want to, but I would have. For you. Because I trust you.” They were pulling him away now, and he was crying, and she wanted to hold him, but they had him to the door now. Just before they pushed him through the door he looked her in the eyes and said, “Judy, you should have asked me.” His voice was one of total defeat. Then he was gone.

  
She stood looking at the door and crying.

  
Dr. Terrell had walked up and put a hand on her shoulder. “You did the right thing, Judy,” she said.

  
“No I didn’t. I betrayed my brother. And he’s right. He would have agreed if I had asked him. He would have done it for me.”

  
“That’s not what we agreed to!” Judy was standing, looking at Dr. Phillips and Dr. Terrell. They were in Dr. Phillips office, and they had been trying to get Judy to sit down, but she was standing and facing them both. “I want to see him now!”

  
“That’s not going to happen Judy,” Dr. Phillips said. “You are too close to him. You will stay here on the base, and at the end of the week, we’ll let you visit him. But you’re not going to be a part of his healthcare while he’s here. You can’t possibly see things neutrally.”

  
“I’m not asking you!” She started to turn to the door, but was met by two security guards.

  
“Judy,” Dr. Terrell, said, “He’ll be alright. We need to get him oriented in to treatment with no outside influence. He will be well taken care of, and you can see him at the end of the week.”

  
“What kind of room are you keeping him in?”

  
“A private room,” Dr. Terrell said. “He’ll be OK.”

  
“No, you can’t do that to him. He needs to stay somewhere else.”

  
“Take her back to the base,” Dr. Phillip said to the two guards. They each grabbed an arm and walked her out.

They left Will by himself until evening, then Dr. Phillip walked in. “How you doing, Will?”

  
The boy was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He looked at the doctor. “I want to see Judy,” he said.

  
“Sorry, out of the question. You will get to see her in a few days, if you are doing alright.”

  
“So I’m a prisoner?”

  
“No, you’re a patient.”

  
“Then why can’t I leave?” He turned and put his feet on the floor.

  
“You’re not that kind of patient, Will.”

  
“What kind of patient am I?”

  
“The kind who has been committed by your sister.” Without another word, he turned and walked out the door.

  
Will sat on the bed and watched the door close, and heard the lock click. He looked around the very small room. It’s going to be a long night, he thought.

Dr. Phillips walked down the hall to his private office where Hastings was sitting in front of the doctor’s desk. The doctor took the other chair.

  
“He knows that Judy committed him. I’m going to let him stew the rest of the night, then we’ll start tests tomorrow.”

  
“Good, that should pull him a little further away from her," Hastings said. "These damn Robinson kids are tied to each other like they are conjoined twins. What about the next step?”

  
“We’ll give it two or three weeks, then take care of it. And we’ll expedite the release. By the time you come back in the second rotation, he’ll be a little more malleable.”

  
“I just hope that robot makes two rotations. Kid’s really going to be disappointed when he finds out he’s staying past the next trip. So, will he forget his family?” Hastings asked.

  
“No, nothing that obvious. But he’ll be a little easier for you to control. I think the last one just didn't release a powerful enough drug.”

  
“Goddamn year late on it, but everything is moving in our direction again finally.” Hastings stood. “I’ll see you in six weeks Doc."

“How are you?”

  
“I’m great,” Will said to the voice.

  
“You didn’t try to reach me.

“No, I figured I would deal with it,” Will said.

  
“You weren’t dealing with it, or I wouldn’t have been able to reach you,” the voice said. “How long?”

  
“Three days so far. I have no idea how long it will be. They haven’t done anything. Just keep me here. I guess they will start doing tests eventually.”

  
“Judy?”

  
“I haven’t seen her,” Will said.

  
“I’m sorry Will.”

  
“Yeah, me too.”

  
His counterpart thought Will sounded very tired. “She thinks it’s the best thing for you.”

  
“I know. She always does. But she didn’t trust me. I just don’t understand that. You know, they tell me you don’t exist. That’s why I’m here. To make you disappear.”

  
“What do you think?” The voice asked.

  
“I don’t know.”

  
“That’s probably the right approach. Will you be happy if I disappear?”

  
“Yes. Nothing in my life has worked since I found out about you,” Will said.

  
“Are they giving you any medication?”

  
“No. They haven’t given me anything. I’ve had a headache since yesterday, but they won’t give me anything for it.”

  
“I wish I could help you,” The voice said.

  
“I guess you are. I’m not staring at the door like I did the last couple of nights. Have you heard anything about what your people are going to do?”

  
“No, We don’t move quickly, though. I wish things were different for you, Will.”

  
“Yeah, me too.”

A week went by, then Will heard a knock on the door. This was unusual, the doctors and nurses just walked in unannounced. Will said, “Come in.”

  
The door opened and Judy stood looking at him.

  
She had stopped just inside the door; her eyes watery. “Hi Will,” She said.

  
“Hi Judy.”

  
She just looked at him.

  
“Are you going to come here and hug me?” Will said.

  
She quickly walked over to him and sat on the bed and put her arms around him. Neither of them talked for a while. She had her face in his neck and he could tell she was crying.

  
“It’s OK, Judy. You don’t have to cry.”

  
She sat back and wiped her eyes.

  
“You’re not mad at me?” She asked her brother.

  
“Of course I am, but what am I going to do? You love me. You think you’re helping me. I know that. You would never do anything to hurt me. You have put your whole life on hold for me. So because I disagree with what you are doing means I’m suddenly going to stop loving you? When we were on Alpha Centauri and you kept making excuses to keep from seeing me, I told Penny I would never do that to her. And I would never do that to you either. You are my sister forever, no matter what.”

  
“You’re going to make me cry again,” She said, wiping her eyes.

  
“Good,” he said, but this time he almost smiled. “But Judy, do you know how much it hurts me to think you didn’t trust me? None of you ever trust me. Except for Penny. You just assume that you can’t talk to me. But you forget that nothing is more important to me than you guys. If you would have just talked to me, I would have done anything you wanted. I would have argued with you and told you I didn’t want to do this, but in the end, I would have. It just hurts so much to think you don’t know me any better than that.”

  
“I know that, Will. I’m sorry. I just try to make the right decisions, and I haven’t been very good at it. From the Resolute with what I said to you, on Alpha Centauri and the way I distanced myself from you. And now here. I know you’re right. I should have just talked to you. I…I’m sorry. Again. I’m just not good at this, I guess.” She wiped her eyes.

  
Will hugged her again, and talked low into her ear. “You know what you are good at, Judy? You’re good at finding me on an alien planet, keeping me sane when I am about to be tortured to death, nursing me back to health while I am in a coma, and saving my life. It sorta makes up for a lot of stuff.”

  
She just held him tighter. He was still the best human she had ever met. She would never understand how a person could be so good.

  
When they pulled back, Will said, “So, they are using the captured robot?”

  
“Yes, it’s their only choice.”

  
“He’s dying. And he’s spending his last few weeks in a crate being tortured by them. That’s what will happen, then he will Die.”

  
“Will, I had to make a choice between you and the captured robot. That’s an easy choice for me.”

  
“Sometimes there’s no good options?” He asked.

  
“I’m sorry, Will, but yes, sometimes there’s no good choices.”

They tested him every day for three weeks. MRIs, full body scans, blood tests daily while monitoring for any changes. But they were primarily concerned with psychological exams. Will had begun to figure out what he should say and shouldn’t say. He didn’t want to lie to Judy, but he wanted to make sure they all knew he wasn’t crazy, so he focused on PTSD and depression. He told them everything about the cage and his time with the Haja, and tried to make them focus on that, and how it affected him psychologically.

  
They tried to talk to him about his connection with the robots, but he insisted he didn’t know how that happened. He figured if he could just get them to see his problems as normal trauma associated with isolation and mental torture, they would be less concerned about psychosis. That would be the key to releasing him. He held out hope that he could be released a couple of weeks before the Resolute 2 returned. At least he would be free of the room and could hang out with Judy. As it was, they only let her see him on Saturday’s for a few hours.

Judy had just left after spending Saturday afternoon with him. They had played cards and actually laughed and had a good day. Doctor Terrell had told Judy that she thought they might be able to treat him with anti-depression medication, and that as far as she was concerned, Will was just a normal teenager that had endured unbelievable psychological trauma, but that it was treatable. When Judy told Will this, his mood was high.

  
“Hey, do you think they will let me out in a week? At least we can hang out together before the Resolute 2 comes back. It sucks seeing you just once a week.”

  
“I know Will,” Judy put her hand on his arm. She was sitting on the edge of his bed. “Let me talk to them and see what I can do, OK?” She hugged him and left.

The next day the nurse came in and said, “I need to start an IV.”

  
“Why?” Will asked. “I know, not your pay grade.”

  
“You’re getting smarter.”

  
She hooked up the IV, then cleaned his arm and put the needle in him. Then she said, “Goodnight, Will.”

  
He was asleep before he knew what was happening.

  
Dr. Phillips was watching on the monitor in the security office with the technician. “Ok, right here. Use the clip where he threw the blanket over the camera. First thing his sister’s going to do is ask to see the video. I don’t want her seeing the nurse hooking up the IV. We’ll show her the kid covering the camera. Make sure the date and timeline matches.”

His head was killing him. He opened his eyes and looked around the room. It was empty. He reached up and felt the bandage around his head. Oh no, he thought. He pushed his fingers up under the wrappings and found there were taped bandages on his temple. “They did it again!” He said out loud.

  
There was a knock on the door. He looked up and Judy walked in. This time she quickly walked over and hugged him, and stood beside his bed. He couldn’t remember how many days it had been since she had been to see him. “Judy, when were you here last?” He asked.

  
“Four days ago. On Saturday. I've been downstairs waiting for you to wake up. They were monitoring you with the camera.”

  
“They did it again, Judy.” He reached up and touched the bandages. “They do whatever they want to me.”

  
“What do you mean?” She asked.

“The operation.”

  
“Will, there was no operation.”

  
“What do you mean, you can’t see the bandages?”

  
“Oh, Will. You don’t know.” She sat on the bed beside him. “They didn’t do this to you.”

  
“What? What do you mean?” He sounded scared.

  
“Will, it’s OK.” She reached out and put her hand on his knee. “They are going to help you. That’s why you’re here.”

  
“But what happened to me if they didn’t do it?”

“Will, you broke a glass and was digging into your head. You threw a blanket over the camera and by the time they got to the room you were already... When they came in you said you were trying to get the chip out that they put in you. They had to take you down to emergency. You were lucky.”

“No, Judy! I didn’t do this. They did this to me! They operated on me again.”

”Will, I saw the video. You threw a blanket over the camera. They aren’t lying.”

”But...”

  
“Will, it’s OK. Really, they are going to help you.”

  
“But they’re lying, Judy! I didn’t do this!”

  
“Will. Will calm down.” Her voice was soothing. “I’m going to show you something, OK? But you have to stay calm. They will help you.”

  
She took his right hand in hers, then held it up so he could see. He had bandages around his thumb and index finger.

  
“What happened?”

  
“Will, you cut your fingers on the glass. It didn’t stop you though. You just kept trying to…” She stopped and brushed tears off his face. She wanted to cry too, but she was trying to stay calm for him.

  
“Judy, I didn’t do that!”

  
“Will, it’s going to be OK. You’ve just had so much happen to you, it’s more than anyone could deal with. Let alone a boy your age. You are going to get better, then we are going to get mom and dad and Penny and go back to Alpha Centauri and be a family again. I promise.”

  
She hugged him and held him for a long time, then the nurse came and told her she had five minutes, but she could come back the next day. She sat with him for a few more minutes, then she stood up to leave.

  
“Will, they are going to start letting me see you every day now. So I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  
“OK, Judy.”

  
She walked to the door.

  
“Judy,” he said.

  
She turned back to him.

  
“Can I ask you something?”

  
“Of course.”

  
She saw tears were coming to his eyes again.

  
“Is…is…Nin real?”

  
“Oh, Will.” She quickly walked back to the bed and sat beside him, taking his hands in hers. “Will, Nin is very real. She is so, so beautiful, with the bluest eyes you have ever seen. And she loves you so much.”

  
He was crying but she saw the relief in his eyes. She hugged him again, promising herself not to cry until she left the room.


	12. Chapter 12

Vijay pulled his Ecar up at the staging area at Alpha, Penny beside him. The Resolute 2 was back from Earth and they wanted to meet Don. Penny was anxious for news of her brother. There was a large parking lot and some bleachers where people waited as the colonists were transported to the planet from the Resolute 2. Often the bleachers would be full of people waiting for family members to arrive that were scheduled for the next rotation, but today there were only a few people.

Penny called Ava on her radio. They had agreed to meet here. “Hey Penny, you here?” Ava answered.

“Yeah, we just pulled up.”

“OK, I’m in the front row, not a lot of people here though.”

Penny and Vijay got out of the car and walked toward the bleachers and saw Ava waving. Penny greeted her with a hug and she and Vijay sat beside her and waited as a large transport began descending.

“It's kind of weird,” Vijay said. “I figured with the missions back on, there would be a ton of people here waiting.”

“Yeah,” Penny agreed. “This is only the second mission since we disappeared."

They sat together and watched as the first transport landed and two hundred colonists walked down the ramp. They watched them look around at the mountains in the background, then look up at the sky. Penny knew they were marveling at how blue it was. She remembered when they crashed on the first planet. With everything they were dealing with, it was still amazingly beautiful. 

Penny smiled. “They are so lucky, getting to arrive like normal people. What would that be like to just walk off the ship and see the sky looking so blue? I don’t see any kids yet. They'll be amazed. I bet a lot of them don’t even know what a blue sky looks like.”

“Yeah,” Vijay agreed. “Hey there’s Don. He’s on the first transport!”

The three of them stood and yelled at Don. He smiled and waved, then walked toward the bleachers. Ava grabbed him in a hug, and they kissed. Looks a little serious, Penny thought, smiling.

When Don let Ava go, he clapped Vijay on the back and wrapped his arms around Penny. “What are you doing on Alpha Centauri, kid?”

“I think I just needed a break from everything. And I thought I would get to see Will a little sooner, but then I heard they were committing him. How is he Don?”

“Hey, want to stop and get a coffee on the way back and talk?” He asked.

“Fine with me,” Ava said. “But I have other plans for the rest of the afternoon,” she winked at Don.

Vijay and Penny followed Ava and Don to town, and they pulled into a coffee shop. They started to walk inside, and Penny said, “Can we get it and sit out here?” She indicated a table on the sidewalk.

“Sure, what do you want?” Vijay asked. “Don and I can go get drinks.”

Ava and Penny gave them their orders and took one of the tables. “Good,” Penny said. “I hate coffee shops.”

“You hate coffee shops?” Ava said. “Who hates coffee shops?”

“I know, right? I’ve just always hated coffee shops. I can’t explain it.”

“Has anyone ever mentioned you Robinsons are a little strange?” Ava was grinning at her.

“It’s come up once or twice,” Penny said, smiling.

Don and Vijay came back out and sat down with the drinks.

“So, about Will?” Penny asked.

“I didn’t see him much once we dropped him off. Judy took him to the clinic as soon as we landed, but she was upset. She just felt like it was the best thing for him. But during the trip, he seemed normal to me. Judy expects to have them do some tests for a month or so, then he'll be back on the next rotation. It’s probably the best thing for him, Penny.”

“But she didn’t tell him, Don. That’s going to hurt him so much. Will would have agreed, if we had just talked to him."

“Maybe, but you know Judy, she thinks she’s doing the right thing. She’s worried about him.”

“We’re all worried about him, Don. It just wasn’t handled correctly.”

“Hey,” Ava interrupted, thinking she should change the subject. “How about you guys come over for a barbecue this weekend? It would be good to get some friends together.”

Ava lived with Angela on the other side of the lake in a Jupiter that wasn’t going to go back to space. It had been on the 24th Colonist’s trip and had been too severely damaged.

When Penny and Vijay pulled up, Ava and Don were sitting in plastic chairs outside the ship. They stood and walked toward the car to greet them.

“Beer for you, Penny? Soda Vijay?” Don asked.

“Beer for me too,” He said.

Don glanced at Penny. “What can I say, he’s changed,” she said.

When they had their drinks and sat back down Penny asked where Angela was.

Before they could answer, they heard the inescapable sound of an Ecar. Don always said it sounded like a washing machine. He liked things that went fast. He hated Ecars.

“She went to pick up another guest,” Ava answered.

Penny saw who was in the vehicle, and stood up and greeted Rose as she jumped out and ran to her and hugged her. Angela got out of the driver’s side.

“How’s my eternal best friend?” Rose asked with a big smile.

“Don hasn’t told you?” Penny asked.

“No, this is the first time I’ve seen any of you since you left. Don messaged Angela that you were coming over and I wanted to see you.”

Angela stepped up and hugged Penny, then they sat down in some other chairs that Don had brought out.

“Will’s not good Rose,” Penny said. “They have him in a hospital on Earth. It’s the visions, the blackouts, everything.”

“They don’t believe he really has visions?” Rose asked.

“No. I mean, I don’t blame them, they do seem crazy.”

“Will’s not crazy,” Rose said. Her tone had turned serious. Penny had never heard her like this before. The girl was normally bubbly and seemed happy all the time. Penny saw her hair had begun to grow back in. She had always worn it long, but cut it to look like Will when she exchanged places with him to help him escape the hospital on Alpha Centauri.

“He’s not crazy, but he has so many problems," Penny said. "The things he says are just unbelievable...some of them."

“I imagined things sometimes after my husband was killed,” Angela said. “People react differently when they suffer from PTSD.”

“Wait a minute,” Rose said. “Penny, you don’t believe what Will says?”

“Well, I definitely support him. But I can’t really blame Judy and Mom and Dad, some of it’s just too bizarre.”

“I don’t know everything he has talked about,” Don said. “But Judy agrees with Penny.”

“Listen,” Rose said. “I know you are all trying to help him, but you’re his family. You need to believe him and support him.”

“We do support him Rose. Just, Judy believes we need to get him help. If you heard…”

“Penny, I love you, but I don’t need to know what Will has told you. I believe him. He isn’t making anything up. Judy needs to believe him and so does the rest of your family.”

“How? If someone is suffering from psychosis or something, they won’t even know if what they are seeing is real. Will told me that himself.” She was still pissed off at her family, but now, in true Penny fashion, she wasn’t going to let anyone else attack them or their decisions.

“Penny, I don’t know a lot, but I know Will. He isn’t making anything up and you need to believe him.”

“Rose,” Angela said, “I’m sure they are doing what they believe is the right thing for him.”

“I’m sure they are too, but they are wrong. Penny, you need to believe me.”

“I’m sorry Rose, I know you’re his friend,”

“I’m his _eternal_ friend, not just his friend.”

Penny wasn’t even sure what the girl was talking about anymore. Will said Rose had told him that when they first meant, and she had made him a necklace with an elongated figure eight, the sign for eternity. She gave it to him the first time she saw him. Penny thought she was just a nice, funny girl that treated Will like a younger brother. But now she seemed serious about everything. Will had met her out at the island with the deserters who had signed agreements to work for Alpha Control in some capacity, but then had left their jobs. Angela, Rose, and others from the main settlement had begun hanging out with them. Penny had met them all and liked them, but they were certainly different. Rose had even helped Will when he participated in a ceremony with a hallucinogenic drug. For the first time, Penny wondered if Rose had some issues of her own.

“Don, so you flew over the restricted area on the planet?” Vijay asked.

Penny looked at him. She knew he was trying to change the subject because he saw the tension between Rose and the rest of them now. He had always been such a nice guy.

“Yes. On the first trip back, when Will disappeared, the planes on the base were scrambled, and everyone was directed to the restricted zone first. They really didn’t want him to go there. They need him alive.”

“What did it look like?” Vijay asked.

“Abandoned. Completely deserted. Visibility is low, but I scanned for heat sources, and I was in a Phantom, so I was able to illuminate the area pretty well, but there was nothing there at all. It’s dead. One of the red flags with Will is that he said he saw a little girl over there. I flew over it looking for her, but of course, he hadn’t seen anyone.”

Penny glanced at Rose, but she was just staring at the ground.

“It’s weird,” Vijay said. “My dad said the council spoke to IA about everything, but they either didn’t have a lot of information, or didn’t want to say too much.”

“That’s strange,” Angela said.

“Things have been weird,” Vijay said. “My dad says there’s a power struggle between IA and the Council. IA has had pretty much a free reign since colonization began on Alpha, but as more colonists arrived, and the council got stronger, they tried to push for oversight and IA has been pushing back.”

“What would that have to do with Earth and the virus?” Penny asked.

“Probably nothing. Maybe they just don’t want to cooperate with the council, but on this, it seems like we would all be on the same side.”

“Yeah,” Don said. “You know, Will has been fighting them on taking more IA officers to the Amber Planet. He agrees to take no more than a few at a time when he is doing the run.”

“You know they have a new facility,” Angela said. “IA transported a lot of military equipment here the first three years, but it’s pretty much scattered all over the settlements. But the last few weeks there has been a lot of equipment movement to the place toward the Sand Cliffs. Strictly IA allowed though. No one else can get in.”

“Who wants a steak?” Don asked. “Vijay, want to help me grill?”

“Sure. I’m ready for another beer though.”

“Wow, you have changed,” Don grinned at the boy. He walked over near the grill and opened a cooler that sat beside it. He took two beers out, then pulled packages wrapped in brown paper.

Angela walked past them into the Jupiter.

“Be right back Don, I have to go to the bathroom,” Vijay said, and followed Angela in to the Jupiter.

“Hey, Angela.” She turned back to him.

“Hey Vijay.”

“Do you have a kayak I can borrow?” he asked.

“ _We_ can borrow?” Penny had walked in behind them.

“We do.” They looked back and Rose was standing there.

“Did I call a meeting?” Vijay asked.

“You’re funnier than you used to be too,” Penny said.

“What do you want a kayak for, Vijay?” Angela asked.

“We can take one to below the Sand Cliffs. No one will see us. We might be able to get a look at the IA facility. But I don’t want Don and Ava to know if Penny is going. Don is like her surrogate parent when her mom and dad are gone.”

“ _Is_ Penny going?” Angela asked.

“Seriously?” Penny asked.

“Seriously?” Vijay asked.

"OK, I won't tell them, but that means I'm going too."

“Angela has a tandem and I can get one at the island,” Rose said. “When are we doing this?”

“You tell me,” Vijay answered.

“Sunday morning? I can pick it up tomorrow,” Rose answered.

“OK,” Angela agreed. “On one condition. You guys do what I say.”

The three kids looked at each other. “Why wouldn’t we?” Penny asked.

“Right,” Angela said.


	13. Chapter 13

They met on Sunday morning just as the sun was coming up. Angela and Rose had the kayaks on a deserted beach outside of town. Vijay had parked the Ecar by the beach and he and Penny climbed in one kayak and Rose waded over to Angela’s kayak.

Angela handed a backpack to Rose, “Hand that to them.”

“What’s in it?” Penny asked, taking the pack.

“Water, food. It’s a three hour paddle there and three back. You didn’t bring anything did you?”

Penny and Vijay looked at each other. Rose shrugged her shoulders too.

“Kids. Your dad would be proud of you Penny." She shook her head and led the kayak out onto the lake. Vijay and Penny followed.

The day was beautiful, and it was easy to forget how serious everything was. For a while, Penny let her mind wander and she remembered so many camping trips with her family back on Earth. John was an avid outdoors-man, and believed that it was the best way to teach his children survival skills, as well as prepare them for the many challenges that they would face in their lives. But mainly it was fun. She missed those days terribly, but more, she missed her family and having all of them together.

It had been so long, she thought. The Water Planet was the last time they had all been able to just be a family. Once they had gotten Will back to Alpha Centauri, they had hoped they would be able to find what they had left behind on earth, but it just wasn’t possible. Judy had distanced herself from them, and her mom and dad were busy all the time. And Will was just so...different.

She thought about him now. She completely meant it when she said if she had to take care of her brother for the rest of her life she would. He had given up everything for them, and she would gladly do that for him. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but there was no way to know how damaged he really was.

She thought about her dream. The dream of this other planet and when they were older. In it, Will exuded strength. Everyone knew of him and his robot, and for some reason they wanted to control him or kill him, and they tried to do it through his sisters. But when Will showed up, everyone was afraid of him.

She wondered if it was a dream, or if she was seeing their lives in the future somehow. She couldn’t explain the dreams she had had of their childhood when Will was in the cage. And Will dreamed of this city too, he said. Even Judy had dreamed of it, or envisioned it when she was taking care of Penny on the Amber planet after the battle. Or she sensed it through Penny. Everything was so strange. Maybe Clark was right. Maybe everything Will said was true. She couldn’t imagine that. But she remembered last month when Will came back to the Amber Planet and she was in bed and he woke her. She turned to him and hugged him and cried. For the first time in their lives, he was the strong one, comforting her. And when she pulled back and looked at his face, she could see the adult Will, the strong Will, in his eyes. It wasn’t hard to imagine that he would one day turn out to be the man in her dream. The man who held entire planets in fear.

“Not much different than he is now,” She said, startled by the realization.

“What?” Vijay asked.

“Sorry, I was thinking out loud,” She said. She was in the rear because she had a lot more experience paddling than he did, so she would be the one to guide.

She watched Vijay now. It was pretty amazing how he had changed in such a short time. When she had first fell for him he was an awkward kid. Which was probably why she liked Clark so much. She knew there would always be a side of her that liked the rebels, she guessed. And maybe why she had had an odd attraction to Ravi ja, though this was the first time she admitted it to herself. And Clark was certainly a rebel. But now, Vijay was much more grown up, more willing to take risks.

And it wasn’t that she had a lot of experience with guys, but she certainly had no complaints about him in bed. They had had sex a few months after they started dating when they had first come to Alpha Centauri, but they were both inexperienced. Clark was much more experienced than he was. But now, Vijay was a lot different. Hmmm, wonder how he got that way, she thought to herself, and smiled. She wasn’t really the jealous type, and after everything she had gone through on the Amber Planet, she had decided to start living life to its fullest. That was the decision she made when she had driven the Chariot over to his apartment that night. It was something she wanted to do, and she was just going to by god do it.

She smiled again. She thought she would drag Vijay into the Chariot, have sex with him, then kick him out and leave. That’s what she had told herself. And the hell with everyone else. That’s not the way it worked out. She ended up falling asleep with him and when his mother woke them up, they laid together for a while before going inside, and it dawned on her she really liked him. She had been surprised that the Dhar’s had no problem letting her stay in his room with him. She thought Victor would be a lot more conservative than that. It turned out he had changed a lot too.

Still, she wasn’t ready to settle down at eighteen and was very clear with Vijay about that. She had learned the same lesson that Will had: life is fleeting, and you never knew how long you had. She thought again about the fight in the jungle, the arrows flying through the trees and the boy, younger than she was, holding his stomach and looking up at her with his fearful, dying eyes.

I’m going to experience what I can while I can, she thought. And then her mind drifted to Siena. The girl was beautiful, and was obviously attracted to Penny. Penny had not really thought about having an attraction to girls before, but she found herself thinking about the girl in the tent in the desert. The little room in the back of it that they had shared. The smell of flowers all around, the breeze blowing through the open window. She smiled again. “Maybe,” She said.

“What?”

She laughed out loud this time. “Sorry Vijay, my mind keeps wandering.”

“Want to share?” He asked, looking over his shoulder at her.

He had beautiful eyes, she thought. That had been the first thing that had attracted her to him. “Maybe someday,” She said, coyly, and laughed again, keeping the hidden meaning to herself.

“Up ahead,” Angela said.

They looked to where she was pointing. They could see the tall Sand Cliffs. This area of the planet was beaten with hard winds most of the year. On the other side of the lake was an arid region, and for thousands of years the sand had been swept up and piled on the edge of the woods that bordered the lake, until hard cliffs had formed, hundreds of meters high. On the other side of the cliffs, at the edge of the semi-desert region was another forest, and between the forest and the sand cliffs was where Angela said IA had begun building a large compound. They hoped that they could get a good view of it from atop the cliffs.

Thirty minutes later they paddled the kayaks up on to a rocky shore, then pulled them out of the water. “I’ll lead. I’ve been hiking up here a few times,” Angela said.

Penny looked at Rose. The girl had been really quiet all day. Penny knew she had been upset when she had heard that Judy had committed Will, but she was surprised that she was still so bothered by it. She smiled at the girl and Rose smiled back. They followed Angela into the woods.

They hiked through the trees for twenty minutes, until they ended at the foot of the hard packed, ocher colored sand.

“The sand is hard,” Angela said. “But your boots will grip it very well. It’s almost perfect for hiking, just follow me. There are several trails up to the top.”

“Trails from people from the town?” Penny asked.

“Some, but some are thousands of years old. The planet was inhabited at one time, but we don’t know who it was.”

“Or what it was?” Vijay asked.

“It was human,” Rose answered. “That’s all there is. Or close enough you wouldn’t know the difference.”

“How do you know?” Vijay asked her.

The girl ignored him, and he and Penny just looked at each other and shrugged.

They followed the paths through the cliffs for an hour, until they came to the top, and Angela was standing out looking over the small patch of arid sand at the bottom. The others joined her, and she pointed. Far away, at the edge of the forest they saw the compound. It was large. Even larger than the Alpha facility, with a tall fence surrounding it. There was a lot of activity, with trucks and other vehicles driving in.

Angela pulled a monocular out of her backpack, and a second one that she handed to Rose. The girls both looked at the compound for a while, then they handed the monoculars to Vijay and Penny.

“They are definitely moving equipment here,” Angela said. “But why?”

“Hey!” They looked at Rose, she was pointing back across the lake and up in the air. There was a drone hovering above them.

“Come on!” Angela said, and led them down the trail a little further until they could hide beneath the edge of the cliff.

“You think they saw us?” Penny asked.

“I don’t know,” Angela said. “I guess if they scramble some helicopters we’ll know then.”

It hovered for several minutes, then they watched it fly over them and descend toward the IA facility. They went back to the top and scanned the compound again.

“There are hundreds of jet copters there,” Penny said, “Look beyond the tree line.”

Vijay adjusted his view, then handed the glass to Angela. “She’s right,” He said. “But there’s something else. There are a ton of people here.”

“Well, it’s a big compound,” Penny said.

“Penny, we need to talk to Don,” Vijay said.

“Why?” she asked.

“Just something I’m thinking. I don’t want to say anything until we talk to him.”

They started back down the cliffs toward the lake.

When they pulled the kayak up on the beach where they left the Ecar, Penny and Vijay thanked Angela and Rose, but Rose followed Penny up the beach. “Penny, can I talk to you?”

Vijay assumed Rose wanted to speak to her alone, so he hung back with Angela.

Penny leaned against the car.

“Penny, I’m sorry if I upset you,” Rose said.

“No. I know you love Will. And you were his only friend here when he really needed one. I won’t forget that, Rose.”

“Then listen to me Penny. You don’t know everything in this world. No one does. But there are some things you just can’t fathom. Will has a gift. Maybe it’s a curse. I’m sure he thinks so. He would like to be a normal boy, surrounded by his family. Going to school. Playing baseball. Having girlfriends. But some people are meant to live bigger lives than the rest of us, no matter how much they might run from it. Will is one of those people. You need to believe what he tells you. You need to get him out of that hospital. You need to take care of him. And one day he will take care of you. But now he needs you, OK?”

Penny looked back at the girl for a minute. She wanted to ask her what she knew that she was keeping to herself, but something told her Rose had said all she was going to say, so Penny just said, “OK, Rose.” She hugged her. “And thank you.”

Don and Ava met Vijay and Penny in town the next morning at the coffee shop. The kids were sitting at the table outside when they arrived.

Don walked in and got drinks for him and Ava and came back and sat down.

“What’s up?” He asked.

Penny told them what they had done the day before. “What do you think it means?” Penny asked.

“I guess they just want their own facility,” Don said. “They’ve been spread out here. And they’ve been bringing equipment over since they first came to the planet."

“Yeah,” Ava agreed. “We used to complain in maintenance. It seemed every trip, we had to make more room for military equipment than for supplies. We couldn’t figure out what they thought the threat was here. It was uninhabited. I guess they knew about the robots, so it could have been that. Maybe they wanted to be able to defend the place.”

“What about their people though? There is a lot more equipment than there are soldiers,” Penny said.

“Yeah,” Don said. “But IA is an intelligence agency. It isn’t a military unit.”

“It wasn’t,” Vijay said. "There have been two hundred or so IA officers here since the colony was founded. Don, what were the colonists like on the Resolute this trip? Did you get to know them?”

“No, I don't go to that part of the ship. Normally I hang with Judy and Will, and we eat in a dining room together. But its a semi private room for officers. We just figured Will and Judy were their prisoners, so they didn't want them mingling too much with the colonists. They keep us all three separated from them pretty much while in flight. What are you getting at?”

“I’m just wondering about something. We need to talk to a colonist that was on this trip, or the last one,” Vijay said. “Since the Resolute program started up again.”

“Hey, I know someone,” Penny said. “A kid named Scott. He’s from our old neighborhood. Will got him on board the first trip back.”

“Yeah, Scott Pointer,” Don said. “He was with Will when I picked them up near your old neighborhood. My brother got him a job with Alpha. He’s living with a friend of Danny’s and his wife that works for Alpha Security. I’ll find out how to get a hold of him. What should I tell him?”

“Nothing. Just tell him I was asking about him and want to see him,” Penny said. “It’s been years.”

The next day Don called Penny. “You want to meet Scott at that cafe near your school? He’ll stop by after school today. He has to work later though.”

“Ask him to skip last hour,” Penny said. “It’ll be crowded after school.”

“Robinsons. Man give you an inch you want a foot,” Don mumbled.

“Thanks, Don.” Penny said cheerfully.

Penny and Vijay arrived at the cafe and bought milkshakes and chose a sidewalk table. A few minutes later Penny recognized Scott walking toward them from the direction of the school. It had been three years since she had seen him. Will was right, he was a lot skinnier than she remembered him. She figured that would change though since he had left Earth.

She stood to greet him. They had never been friends. She was a fierce defender of her brother and the kid had bullied him, so Penny went out of her way to make sure the boy knew she didn’t like him. But he smiled broadly as he approached the table and he wrapped Penny in a hug. “Penny Robinson! I never thought I would see you again.”

“How are you Scott?” Penny was surprised to find she was happy to see him as well. He was someone from home. There would always be a connection to the old neighborhood, she realized.

“This is Vijay,” Penny introduced him and the two shook hands.

“What do you want, Scott?” Vijay asked.

“I’m good,” the boy replied.

“You just got here, you can’t have too many credits earned, yet,” Vijay said. “I’m buying while you two catch up.”

“Thanks, man. Just a shake’s fine.”

Vijay went in the building.

“Remember Mrs. Livingston’s shakes?” Scott asked Penny. He was beaming, and Penny could tell he was happy to see someone from home.

“They were the best,” Penny said. “Will and I loved the root beer floats.”

“Yeah. You miss home?” Scott asked.

“Sometimes,” She admitted. “Things have been pretty crazy though since we left. I guess I haven’t had much time to think about it.”

“Yeah,” Scott said. “I heard about Will last year, but since coming here I’ve heard so much more.”

“How did you hear last year?” She asked him.

“Will was surprised about that too. I didn’t really think about it then, but I don’t know. It was like a rumor going around.”

Vijay came back and handed the boy a vanilla milkshake and sat down.

“Thinks a lot,” Scott said.

Then he looked back at Penny, “So, it’s true? The stories about Will? All of the things he’s done?”

“Well…” Penny said.

“Yes. He saved everyone’s life,” Vijay said. “He sacrificed himself. And it’s cost him a lot. I might not be alive if it wasn’t for him. That goes for about a hundred other kids on the 24th Colonist group. And it just got worse for him after that.”

Penny reached out and took Vijay’s hand. That was the first time she realized how guilty he felt about Will.

“Wow, I had heard the stories,” Scott said. “But I didn’t know. Where is he now?”

“He’s back on Earth,” Penny said. “At the clinic at the base. He’s going through some issues, and Judy took him there to try to help him.”

Scott heard the sadness in her voice. “What can I do to help? I owe him so much. Did you hear what he did with my mom?”

“Yes,” Penny said. “That’s my brother.”

“Scott,” Vijay said. “When you came over on the Resolute, you were with the other colonists, right? I mean you ate with them and everything? The other families and their kids?”

“Yeah. I mean, there wasn’t a lot of kids. A few.”

“That’s what I was wondering. How many kids were there? Families with kids? Mom and dad and all?” Vijay asked.

“That’s weird, I actually wondered about that,” Scott said. “Maybe five or six families. A few kids. But mostly men and women. Kind of quiet. They hung out together but didn’t say much to anyone else. That was pretty much most of them. I mean, out of hundreds. And we had picked up other colonists before I was on board too. Most of them were about the same.”

“How old were these people, most of them?” Vijay asked.

“Young. Twenties and thirties, I guess.”

Penny looked at Vijay, “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know yet,” he said. Then he changed the subject. The three kids talked for another thirty minutes, then Scott said, “I need to head out. I have to work two hours this evening.”

He stood and Penny hugged him goodbye. “It’s so great to see someone from home,” Scott said.

“I think so too, Scott. Really.”

“Hey, need a ride, Scott?” Vijay said.

“You don’t mind?”

“Not a problem at all.”

Twenty minutes later they dropped Scott off at Alpha. They told him bye again and drove off.

“OK, Vijay, What’s going on?” Penny said.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Scott. No sense dragging him in any deeper,” Vijay said.

“Deeper? In what?”

Vijay turned the Ecar into the driveway of the Dhar's house.

“They aren’t bringing colonists here, Penny. They’re bringing an army. Did you notice there weren’t any kids on Don’s transport. That’s why I wanted to ask him about it. And Scott just said the colonists on his trip…”

“Were young, single, and seemed to know each other,” She finished. “What’s going on, Vijay?”

The boy didn’t have a chance to answer, as the Ecar was surrounded by people dressed in black. One of them opened Vijay’s door and dragged him out. Another opened Penny’s door, and grabbed her and began dragging her out, but she headbutted him in the nose and the man grunted and let her go. Then she felt the shock and collapsed.


	14. Chapter 14

“Will, let’s talk about these black outs,” Dr. Terrell said. “Where do you go?”

“How do you know I go anywhere?” 

“Judy told us what you have told her.”

“If you already know, why are you asking me?”

“Because I want to hear it in your own words,” the doctor said.

She’s lying, Will thought. Judy didn’t tell her anything about his visions. “I don’t remember,” Will said.

  
  


Dr. Phillips pressed the button on the remote, pausing the video.

“He’s fucking lying,” Hastings said. “I’ve seen what happens when he black outs. I don’t believe he can’t remember.”

“Well, we’ll find out. That’s why he’s here.”

“Look, I don’t care if this kid is talking to little green Leprechauns who are leading him to a pot of gold. I care that he takes me to where the robots come from, who makes them and why. Did you get that out of him?”

“No.”

“Well, what about his sister? Terrell says Judy already told you all about his visions.”

“No she didn’t. We lied to the boy. Dr. Terrell told him she just wanted to hear it from his own lips. Judy didn’t tell us anything, but he was too smart for that, so he didn’t either. But he’s starting to trust Terrell. We’ll find out about the robots. Just give us some time.”

“You’ve had him six weeks. I’ll give you another month, but when we come back that kid is going to be on the Resolute 2, and he’s going to do what we want. I don’t care if we have to chain him to the engine room and shock him like we do those fucking robots. Seems like he wants to be one, we’ll treat him like them.”

Hastings stood up and walked from the room.

  
  
  


Will was lying in bed. They had given him some books, so it wasn’t as bad as it had been when he first got here. He spent most of his days being questioned by Dr. Terrell and Dr. Phillips or a team of other doctors. Doctor Terrell was really nice to him, and he had begun to trust her until he realized she had lied to him. It didn’t matter now; they were finally leaving. He couldn’t wait to see his family. He missed them all so much, but especially his always companion, Penny. 

His small bag was packed. He was just waiting on his sister now. He hadn’t seen her all day, and usually she was here earlier on Saturday.

There was a knock on his door, and he knew it was Judy, no one else knocked. He stood up and hurried to the door.

He opened it smiling, and gave Judy a big hug. “Is it time?” He asked.

“Can we talk?” Judy said.

“Oh no.” Will turned and walked back to the bed and laid down. His facial expression had gone blank. He knew what was coming.

“Will, they won’t let you go in this rotation.”

“You said six weeks, Judy.”

She sat beside him on the bed. “Will, I know what I said. But the test results haven’t been good.”

“When did they decide this?”

“Today. When I went to talk to them about a release, they said they couldn’t approve it.”

“Did you tell them about my visions?”

“No. I told you I wouldn’t. You know you can trust me.”

“Do I?” He asked. When he saw her expression he was immediately sorry.

“Dr. Terrell asked me about them and she said you told her. I figured that’s why I have to stay. But, I didn’t believe her. I know I can trust you, Judy. I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry, Will.”

He wasn’t looking at her. “I know you are. We have spent a year apologizing to each other. Do you think it will ever end?”

“Will, I don’t know what to say.”

“What can you say, Judy? I want to see mom and dad and Robot. I want to see Penny.”

“I do too, Will. But, I want you to be better.”

“What if I’m OK, Judy? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself that? I mean, I know as soon as I told you about the alternate universe, that’s the moment you decided to have me committed. I know you don’t believe me. And I don’t know if what I am seeing is real. But, just once, have you asked yourself what happens if I’m OK? If this really is happening?”

She looked at him for a few seconds before responding. “No, Will. I haven’t. There are a lot of things we can’t explain. Your connection with Robot, and connecting and controlling all of the robots. But this vision of another universe? Your conversation with a duplicate mom and a duplicate you? Your visitations with the other you? I don’t believe any of that, and I don’t think you really believe it either. That’s why you’re here, Will.”

She stood up. “I’m sorry we can’t go back this time, Will. But I won’t apologize for trying to help you get better.” She turned and walked to the door.

“Judy,” Will stood up and ran to her and hugged her. “I love you, Judy, thanks for everything you do for me.”

“I love you so much, Will.” 

She let him go and started to open the door. 

“Hey, Jude. Would you give me something to help me sleep? I haven’t been able to sleep much in this room and they won’t give me anything.”

“What about the headaches?” 

“Yes, they started giving me something when they are bad.”

“OK, I will bring you something back.”

“Thanks, Judy.”

  
  


“You’re here. I guess you still believe in me.”

“Not necessarily. I talked Judy into giving me some sleeping pills. If I take three I can knock myself out enough to do this. So, why would I think that makes you real?”

“I guess that’s a good point.”

“Why can’t I just visit anytime I want?” Will asked. “Or why can’t you just visit me anytime you want?”

“I don’t know. It has always been this way. A few seemed to be close over the years. Close to reaching across to the other side like you have done. But none have been able to, really. Not like you.

“Who was close?” Will asked.

“Sometimes, when near death, and they have an out of body experience and see visions, that’s when they come close. But William Cantelo is the only one to have ever done it.”

Will laughed in the boy’s mind. “Who’s William Cantelo?” 

“An inventor. He actually managed to cross to our world and back, but when he went back, we made sure he didn’t remember anything about our world.”

“So, were your people worried about him like with me?”

“No. Cantelo was just a bumbling scientist who stumbled into something he didn’t understand. He showed up in our world and kind of connected with his mirror self here. We sent him back a few years later, but he was never a concern. You were different. From the beginning, you showed a deeper appreciation and connection to us than we were used to. And, the world had changed. Your people had discovered the robots, the engine, interstellar space travel, the planet where the robots were created. Since the mid-twentieth century, we have been concerned. That’s why UFO sitings were more prevalent after you entered the atomic age. We had a lot more Synth spaceships there, monitoring you. But after you discovered the robot and the engine, alarms went off in our world, and we began searching for a way to stop your progress.

“You were always on our radar, but what really changed everything was when you connected to your Robot. No one saw that coming.”

“Doesn’t it seem like…this was too important to them to just put it all on me? On me and you?”

“Maybe. But they have been watching you for a long time. And there was always the myth of the one who could reach across and the Guardian to the Gateway. Like all myths, it was sort of left up to interpretation. The one who could reach across would lead to our apocalypse, but there was also a chance he was the Guardian. Or could be. Once we realized what you could do, we decided you could be both. So if we could find a way for you to help us, maybe we could make you the Guardian. I guess the two of us messed up their plans.”

“Can we go outside?” Will asked. They were in the boy’s room, the boy sitting and facing the ocean. 

“Of course.” He stood up and the glass door slid open and they walked out to the balcony.

“This is so cool,” Will said. “It’s beautiful here.”

The boy looked down the ocean toward the Pier. “Good visibility today,” he said, silently.

“Yes, but that last time was cool with the rain,” Will answered.

“Yes.”

“From here, it looks like they are all walking on water on the pier. I saw something like that in a vision or a dream and didn’t understand it until you took me to the pier.”

“Yes. I go there now, sometimes at night,” his counterpart said.

“Really?” 

“Yes. I see the world a little differently now. I think, the way we have built the world to protect ourselves from everything limits us. Of course my family thinks I’m even stranger than they used to.”

“I know the feeling,” Will said. “But at least your’s believes in me. I think they are going to make me forget you. With drugs maybe. Or maybe they will just make me better and you will go away.”

“That will make you better?”

“Yes,” Will answered, silently.

“What if I am real?” The voice asked.

“Still, I would be better. My family won’t think I am crazy.”

“You would choose to stay in the cave? To watch the shadows on the wall? To believe _that_ is the real world. You would not choose to see the sun?”

“If I could do it all over again,” Will said. “Stand at that tunnel door with the choice to open it and go to the White Room? I would turn and run as fast as I could in the other direction.”

  
  
  
  


The boy was alone. Will had visited him every day for a week, but then he would just be gone. That’s the way it worked now. Will would be there in his mind, the two boys mirror images of each other in mirror image worlds. Then Will would leave. The boy always missed him after he left. Like Will, he didn’t have many friends. Will had been visiting every night, but said he was about out of sleeping pills and didn’t think he could ask Judy for more. She had given him enough for almost a month if he took one a night, and he had taken three a night for the last eight days. 

The boy stood on the balcony now and looked out over the rail to the blue ocean far below. It was beautiful now, but it would rain in a couple of hours. The weather radar was highly precise, and they could plan almost to the minute when rain would start and stop. 

He stood thinking about something Will had said to him. He turned and walked to the tube, pressing the button and taking it down to his mother’s office. She and his father were in Mexico City for the weekend. 

Once in the office, he sat down at his mother’s desk and looked at the floating monitor. He placed his palm on the vid-desk. This would activate the computer and the monitor would power on and adjust to his comfort. 

But nothing happened. “Strange,” he thought. They had very few security measures. No one looked at anything that they didn’t have access to. Complete trust was for the common good of society, as well as personal property and privacy. So there was no reason for security measures.

But the boy looked at the world differently now. He saw both sides of the mirror as part of the same world, and if that was the case, betraying his mother’s trust _was_ for the common good. What was it Will said? We could justify anything. 

But the fact that there were security measures on his mother’s tech surprised the boy and made him think Will might be right about what he said. That there was more to the project than he had been told. They had recruited his mother after he and Will had been born and they realized what the two of them were. His mother was already a scientist, but “The Project” as they called it, became the focal point of her life from then on. But what was she hiding?

He thought for a few minutes, then pressed the keys on his communicator, scrolled until he found what he was looking for. He walked back to the tube and into the garage. When the tube opened he crossed to the PFU station, stepped backwards into it, pressed the button and the flight unit slid down and over his back. The polycarbonate helmet slid over his head. After the safety checks, he stepped out on the launch pad. 

He looked to his right over the ocean, then looked down to the ravine below. He smiled to himself, then stepped out into open space, falling toward the rocky ravine. He counted to three, then hit the emergency thruster. His speed was such that he still dropped a couple of meters before the thruster stopped his descent. “Wow!” he said. A word he had never used, but one that Will used often. 

His pulse was racing. He laughed. “Maybe _I'm_ the crazy one,” he thought as he turned toward the ocean, then back south. What he needed was at a specialty shop on the other side of the city. “Twenty seven fourteen Hawking corridor, Belmuth.” He said. 

“Routing,” came the voice from his control system. He let the system guide the unit and he just enjoyed the view of the ocean as he flew. “I have to show this to Will,” he said aloud to himself. “He will think it’s cool.” Then he laughed.

A few days before, he had been with his family while his father showed the vid of their trip to the Amazon with Judith’s class on the skyscreen. They had tracked an anaconda that was over twelve meters long. The screen was fifteen meters wide so the visual of the huge snake coiled around a tree, then slipping into the brown water was amazing. “Cool,” he had said, and they all looked at him.

“Cool?” Judith said. “It was like thirty five C there.”

“It’s slang, I believe,” his mother said. 

“What’s slang?” Penny had asked.

“Words that don’t really mean anything,” their mother answered. He could hear the disappointment in her voice. He knew how much mother loved him, but their relationship had been strained since he had not done as they expected him to do with the Synths.

“If she finds out about this, it won’t help,” He said aloud. Sometimes he didn’t recognize himself anymore.

He had found the specialty shop that sold the item he was looking for and was back home long before the rain started. 

He went back to his mother’s office, peeled the wax paper off of the Vellum, then pressed it very carefully over the palm pad. The paper was so thin mother would not be able to see it or feel it. At least that’s what the reviews said. “I guess we’ll find out.”

  
  


A week had passed. His mother and father both worked from home like almost everyone else, so he had to wait until he had the house to himself again. The whole time he worried that mother might find the vellum that covered the palm pad on her vid desk, but she never said anything.

He went down to her office and slowly pulled the thin paper from her desk. He took it back to his room where he used a MIG light to find a perfect print. She probably placed her hands on it many times in the last few days, obscuring them. He thought this might take several attempts to get a full print. But surprisingly, there was a complete palm print. He carefully cut it out.

He took the print, entered the tube and went down to the family tech office and walked to the printer. He pressed the information into the key pad and thirty seconds later a plastic hand slid out of the tray beneath. It was a perfect replica of his mother’s left hand. 

He carefully placed the Vellum print over the palm on the plastic hand. He didn’t think it had to be perfect. The weight just needed to be close and the print had to match up.

When he thought he had it as close as he could get it, he took the tube down to his mother’s office, sat behind her desk, and placed the fake hand on the palm pad. The system powered up.

“It worked!” He realized he said it aloud and laughed.

He searched his mother’s files for almost an hour before he found what he was looking for. She had saved it under “Pnath.” Figures, he thought.

He opened the file and began searching. There was more information on Will than he could have imagined. His first words, his first steps, his first day of school, every trip to the doctor. Will had experienced a few traumatic events in his life that the boy was sure had influenced his personality. He was full of hope and had an unusual spark about him, but his counterpart knew he had a dark nature under the surface as well, that had just come out after all of the trauma he had experienced the last year. There had been a severe attack by a dog when he was six. He nearly drowned when he was almost nine. They even had some of his dreams and thoughts beginning when he turned eleven. “After he connected with the synth,” the boy said to himself.

Apparently, when the robot and Will became connected, the recorded data collected in the White Room included Will’s thoughts as well as his actions. The boy read about Will’s dreams, the fear and isolation when he was in the cage. At twelve and thirteen he had begun to think about girls and his feelings about Nin were documented. Suddenly, the boy stopped reading. While no two people knew each other more than he and Will did, he still felt like he was intruding to read all of Will’s private thoughts. It angered him that his mother and the others on the council had access to all of it.

Then he found a subfile that was untitled.

He opened it and began reading. An hour later he sat back in his mother’s desk chair. “Wow!” he said. Now he had to wait for Will to enter a subconscious state. Or for him to come back on his own. 


	15. Chapter 15

“When will they know if they are going to let me go next trip?” Will asked. Judy was sitting beside him on a bench in front of the hospital. They had begun letting her walk around the hospital grounds with him. There was a guard a few meters away at all times.

Will hadn’t talked very much. He had been sullen since the visit when he found he couldn’t go back.

“They said they will tell me this week,” Judy said.

He didn’t say anything in response.

“Will, you OK?” she asked. “Will.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I was thinking about when you and I went to the Kur. They loved you, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, they accepted me because of Kalik I think. They sort of became my family.”

“If something happened to us, do you think you would ever go back there?”

“I don’t know. Everything is different with us now it seems. We all had so many plans and now nothing seems right.”

“Everyone waiting on me,” he said.

She put her hand on his. “Robinsons stick together, Will.”

“Do we, Judy? Is there anything I could do to make you walk away from me forever?”

“Will, I know back on Alpha Centauri I tried to distance myself…”

“Judy, I’m not asking about that. I understand it. I mean, could I ever do anything that you thought was so bad, you would hate me?”

“Never, Will. You would never do anything that made me think that way. You are the best person I know.”

“If I ever did, Judy, I would want you to know it was because I had no choice. But I still love you. That’s what matters. That no matter what, I still love you.”

“When you talk like this, it makes me worry about you.”

“I’m sorry, I’m just talking. I miss everyone so much.”

“Yeah, me too, Will.”

“It’s time,” the guard said. He could only be outside for an hour a day.

They stood up and walked inside, the guard on their heels.

As they rode the elevator back up to the top floor, Judy was thinking about what her brother had just said. Would he try to hurt himself? What else could he be talking about? What else could he do to make her hate him? Then she remembered the sleeping pills she had left with him. She didn’t say anything to him but decided she would take them back as soon as they got upstairs. 

When they were in the room, Will laid down on his bed and Judy opened the drawer where she knew he kept the pills hidden from the nurses. She picked up the capsule, then turned to her brother. “Will! Where are the pills?”

“I took them.”

“No! You couldn’t have. There are only two left!”

“I know, but I can’t sleep. I need three at night.”

“Will! This is why Doctor Phillips says I have to stay out of your health care! I trusted you, so I sneaked them to you, and you have been abusing them! Will, I can’t trust anything you tell me anymore!”

“Judy don’t say that. You know you can trust me with anything.”

“Not with your own health I can’t. I’m taking these and don’t ask me for anymore. I should have listened to the doctors and stayed out of it!”

“Judy, please. Don’t be mad at me.”

He looked like he was going to cry. He had seemed so mature in the last year, but now the weeks here in the hospital seemed to make him vulnerable again, like when they first went to space. She felt bad and started to sit down on the bed beside him and talk to him, but then she decided it was time to take a different approach.

“Will. I _am_ mad at you. I care more about your health than you do. I’m tired of it. You need to wake up and see how many people are trying to help you. Abusing drugs is just like laughing in my face.”

“Judy, I’m not abusing drugs.”

“Seriously? How can you say that to me when I’m holding the evidence in front of you?”

“OK. I’ll tell you the truth. If I use three, I can get into a deep enough sleep that I can visit the other Will. My counterpart. It helps me at night when I can’t sleep. This room…”

“I don’t want to hear about how you are afraid to be locked in the room, Will. You betrayed my trust to continue on this fantasy with your invisible friend and this goddamn dream world of yours.”

“You never believed me, did you, Judy?”

“Will, I tried to. Really. I argued with the doctors when they first told me that you were making this stuff up, but I was wrong. Your health is more important to me than your feelings right now. No, I don’t believe you. I don’t think you lied, I think you imagined it and you need help. And you are not going to get out of here until you’re better. I’m sorry.”

“We won’t be going back when the Resolute 2 comes back?”

“How could we, Will? I mean, if I really cared about you, how could I take you out of here after you tell me this?”

She thought he was going to cry, but he just looked at her and said, “OK, Judy. I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

Then she couldn’t handle it. She walked over to the bed and hugged him. When she let go there were tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Will. I know you can’t help it. I know you want to be better. But I have to do this for you.”

“It’s OK, Judy. I told you I love you no matter what.” He hugged her again.

The next day she went back outside with him and they sat on the bench together. He tried to act like nothing had happened the day before, and didn’t mention getting released. But she could sense his mood. As they sat there, a Chariot pulled up and the driver stopped and started talking to the guard. It wasn’t unusual to see a Chariot. They were kept on the base and taken on the transport to the Jupiters before launch. It looked like the driver was a friend of the guard, and had just stopped to talk to him.

Will didn’t have a plan and had not given it any thought. He sat looking at the guard and the man standing by the open door of the Chariot. Then he looked at his sister and said, “I love you, Judy.”

She looked back at him and smiled. Then she had a premonition. In the cell when the Haja had them and Will was sick and had given up he said that to her. And when he was stealing the Jupiter 2 on Alpha Centauri and she hadn’t seen him for a month and the two of them had stopped speaking to each other. This was his way of telling her goodbye. She glanced at the Chariot, then back at Will, but it was too late.

He sprung from the bench and sprinted toward the open door of the Chariot.

“Will!”

The guard and the driver were a couple of meters away from the vehicle and looked at her when she yelled her brother's name. Will was in the front seat before they knew what happened and by the time the guard reacted, he had slammed the door and locked it.

Will had driven a Chariot several times after his dad’s initial driving lesson, so he had it started before the driver and the guard could get to the door. The guard pulled his laser, but Judy ran into him from behind, and Will drove away.

“What are you doing?” The guard yelled.

“You can’t shoot him!” She said.

“It was on stun.”

The driver already was talking on his radio and now the guard was doing the same thing.

Will had no idea where he was going, he just needed to get away. By the time he was at the gate, they had pulled a military Jeep in front to block him. But he was in a Chariot. He rammed the Jeep, shoving it off the road, then he crushed the gate and kept going. Guards scattered to get out of his way.

He drove through a residential neighborhood until he found the ramp for the freeway. He veered on to it. It was almost deserted. They had told him that the suburbs near the barrier fence had mostly evacuated, but it seemed to him it was much more widespread than that.

He heard a noise above him and saw a helicopter flying low.

He veered off the Freeway. He didn’t know if they would fire at him, but he thought it was better to be in a residential area for cover.

He sped through empty streets, the helicopter still above him. He could hear sirens in the distance, growing closer. He didn’t know where he was going to go, but he decided he wasn’t going to make it easy on them.

Suddenly, military vehicles appeared in his rear view mirror. He accelerated and turned down an empty four lane street. He made a left and then another right, and there at the end of the block was the barrier fence. “Now what?” He asked himself.

Later, when he thought about it, he couldn’t remember if it was because he was tired of the hospitals and the visions and trying to get people to believe him, or if he just didn’t give a flying fuck anymore. He pushed the accelerator flat to the floor. He was about to ram the fence when the Chariot was hit by an electrical pulse, and suddenly it was airborne. Will screamed as the vehicle plowed into the fence, still a meter off the ground. It ripped a hole in the chain link and crashed to the road, tilted on its left tires, then rolled over on its top.

Will realized his eyes were shut. He opened them. He was hanging upside down from the seat belt. He looked back at the fence he had just crashed through. He was twenty meters inside the red zone. He thought they had fired a laser at him, but then he saw the military vehicles had stopped a few meters from the fence. “There was a barrier,” he said aloud. They had erected an electric barrier a meter outside the chain link fence, like his family always erected around the Jupiter 2. “Wow. A Faraday cage,” he said, realizing that the Chariot had just saved his life, like it had saved his mom’s and Penny’s lives from the lightning strikes on the water planet.

The soldiers had piled out of the trucks, and more military vehicles were driving up, but they had to stop outside the electric barrier. Will unbuckled his seat belt and put his hands up to break his fall as he dropped on to the roof. He climbed out of the Chariot and quickly examined himself. He seemed uninjured.

“Will Robinson, you can’t go over there. You’ll die,” one of the soldiers yelled at him. Will saw another solider was on his radio, obviously calling for the helicopter or to have them turn off the barrier.

Will knew that everyone was given HAZMAT suits, so he needed to see if there was one in the Chariot. He looked in the back seat and saw it, on the roof, crumpled in a pile. He grabbed it, then took off running as fast as he could, deeper into the red zone. He ran between two houses, then climbed into the HAZMAT suit, put the helmet on and sealed it. He heard helicopters in the distance and planes somewhere overhead. He started running again.

He darted into an alley and began walking, staying close enough to the buildings to duck in a doorway if a plane or helicopter flew over looking for him.

Will had no idea where he was going, but he wanted to get away from the Chariot, the hospital, and all the people who thought they were helping him. As he walked he took off his wrist radio and tossed it over a fence. He took the low frequency radio that Judy had given him and started to toss it away. He felt it buzzing. He hadn't noticed while he was fleeing. He looked at it. She had given it to him because she loved him, and he had promised her. He powered it off and put it back in his pocket. He would keep it for a while, but he didn’t want his family to put their lives on hold for him anymore. He didn’t want anyone else to die for him. He didn’t want any part of a mirror world and an imaginary friend. He didn’t want to do anything that would make Judy hate him. When he had disappeared before, he did everything he could to try and remember who he was. Now he just didn’t want to be Will Robinson anymore.


	16. Chapter 16

“What were you doing at the Sand Cliffs?” Penny sat across from the two IA officers in a small room.

“What Sand Cliffs?”

They dropped a photo on the desk in front of her. It was a close up of her face, staring into the lens of the drone’s camera. “And don’t ask how we knew who you were. You’re a Robinson.”

“Oh, _those_ Sand Cliffs,” She said. “Hiking.”

“Sure you were,” the other officer said.

“Where’s Vijay? You guys are going to be in so much trouble. Do you know who his dad is?”

The two officers looked at each other and smiled. “Yeah, important guy, we hear.”

They walked out of the room and left her sitting there.

A week went by. They tried to question Penny every day, but she refused to answer anything. So far they had not hurt her. They had picked up Angela too, but no one knew who the other girl was. Victor had been to the facility every day, trying to see Vijay and Penny, but they refused to let anyone in, and just said that it was an Alpha Security matter.

When Victor could get no further with IA, he went to see Council President Curry. Curry called an emergency meeting for that night.

“I’ve called this emergency session of the Alpha Council, because of concerns that Representative Dhar has brought to light.” Council President Curry nodded to Victor, who was sitting at the table in the front. There were forty nine members of the council. One elected member from each Jupiter mission, and an equal member elected from among the citizens already on Alpha Centauri, plus the presiding President, Mr. Curry. They met in an auditorium in the municipal building in the City Center.

“Victor, you have the floor.”

Victor stood. “As you all know, my son and two others were taken prisoner by the Intelligence Agency a week ago today.”

Before he could say anymore, the doors flew open and soldiers dressed in black with their faces covered walked into the room, filling both aisles. They were armed with laser rifles. They surrounded the council members.

Representative Curry stood up from behind the long table in front. “What’s going on here?”

One of the soldiers approached the front and addressed him. “This is an illegal meeting of the council and everyone is under arrest.”

“On whose authority?” Representative Curry asked.

“IA Central Command. This council is endangering planet security, and IA is exercising its duty to insure the safety of all citizens.”

Victor quickly sent a message on his wrist radio, and one of the soldiers pushed a laser in his forehead. “Hand it to me,” He said.

The soldier who had addressed the council said, “Everyone, remove your radios. They’ll be confiscated.”

Prisha looked at her radio when she got the message. She stood and ran toward the door, but as she got there the it flew open and several soldiers dressed in black grabbed her and bound her hands behind her back. She tried to fight but they dragged her to one of the black trucks parked in the driveway.

Rose waited in the woods. It had been close to two weeks, but she couldn’t risk leaving and missing them. She had called Karl, their friend from the island, and told him what she was going to do, but that she had to silence her radio. She didn’t know if they had figured out who she was yet, but she was sure they were looking for the fourth person that the drone had spotted on the Sand Cliffs.

She saw the light flash twice out on the water. She crept out of the woods, down by the wooden table and chairs that John and Will had carved, next to the lake. The Refuge they called it.

She was already at the bank when Karl guided his kayak up on the shore. They hugged quickly then hurried back into the trees. Karl handed her the bag of food and other supplies he had brought.

“What did you find out?” She asked him, as she sat down and took a sandwich out of the supplies.

“They moved Penny out to the facility where they were holding Will. They have Angela and Vijay and the boy’s mom with the council at the main facility in town. Nothing you can do there, but I don’t think they will hurt them. It would be hard to get by with killing the whole council. It’s Penny I’m worried about.”

“I don’t think they will hurt her,” Rose said. “They can’t afford to piss Will off. But we need to get her out of there.”

“How long you prepared to wait here?” Karl asked.

“I’ll give it another week or two. If they come back, we’ll be able to free her.”

Rose didn’t have to wait two weeks. The Jupiter 2.0 landed four days later. Rose knew that they had been landing the ship by the lake where the Robinson’s had staged their Jupiter 2. They weren’t too concerned about IA attacking it. They had Robot.

Rose ran out of the trees and began waving up and down in front of the Flight Deck window as soon as it landed. Once on the ground, Clark and Gary ran out to see what the girl wanted. Robot walked down the ramp behind them.

Once she explained everything to them, Gary said, “Keeping her out there is stupid. We would have had a much harder time if she was at the main facility. They are too far out to get reinforcements out there before we are gone.”

Penny was asleep when the first explosion rocked the building. She rolled off the cot she was on, then crawled under it. There were emergency signals blaring, and more explosions. This was a small facility, and while they had kept her head covered as they brought her in, she was pretty sure it was the one they had kept Will at. They had completely ignored her since she had been brought here, and she had decided they just wanted to keep her hidden. But now they were under attack by someone.

The explosions had gone on for ten minutes, then suddenly stopped. She heard someone approach the door down at the end of the hall. She was quiet. She didn’t know if this was good or bad. She slid out from underneath the cot and crawled on her hands and knees until she could see the door at the end of the hall.

Suddenly the door was crushed. She quickly retreated back under the cot. The footsteps were heavy…almost mechanical.

“Robot?” She called.

Then he was there. Looking in her cell. She smiled up at him. “It’s about damn time,” she said.

He grabbed two bars, pulled them apart, and Penny ran to him and hugged his chest. They walked down the hall. Once upstairs, she saw bodies everywhere. They walked outside, and she saw the space pod beside the building. Gary opened the hatch. “You ready to get the hell out of here, Penny?”

“Yeah!” She said, running to him and giving him a hug. “Where’s Clark?”

“He’s still on the Jupiter, pissed off because I wouldn’t let him land. Speaking of landing, where do you want to go?’

“Earth,” She said.


	17. Chapter 17

Will walked down the alley, holding close to the wall, and watching overhead for the helicopter. He heard planes pass over, but no more helicopters. Everyone told them that there was no life this side of the barrier fence. The curiosity was enough to keep him going. “Not like I have anywhere else to be,” He said.

  
He was walking north toward downtown. He knew the city well, but having never driven on the streets, he was only guessing at distance. He had no GPS since he tossed his radio, but when he saw the 105 ahead of him, running East and West, he knew he had passed his old neighborhood and was on the right path toward the City. He didn’t know what he would find there, but everyone said that downtown had been evacuated. He was just now beginning to see how large the condemned area was.

  
Judy had said it was thirty five kilometers, give or take, from the Base to downtown. He figured he was still ten kilometers or so away, but he was just guessing how far he had driven. If he was close, it would take him two or three hours walking normally, he figured, but the suit was cumbersome and hot and miserable to walk in. Still it wasn’t like he had a schedule to keep. He just wanted to see what it was like there. He couldn’t imagine the entire downtown being deserted.

  
He came to a fence running along the 105. He could try to climb it, but he looked across the deserted highway and saw he would be climbing over four fences by the time he was across. He turned West, walking toward the Ocean, looking for a cross street that would take him over the Freeway.

  
After twenty minutes or so, he came to Paramount and turned on to it, seeing that it would lead him across. When he was above the 105 he looked down and saw there were burnt and abandoned cars and trucks all along the highway, but all of them were heading East. “They were leaving the city,” he said.

  
There were several pile ups, where the cars had collided, but there were also burnt marks all over the highway, and pits and potholes that he knew had been made from laser or artillery fire of some kind.

  
Something had happened here. Something more than they had told him. Would they have attacked the people as they fled the city?

  
In front of him there were more wrecked cars. They had been heading south, also fleeing the downtown area. This was going to take him longer than he thought. Suddenly he heard a plane overhead. He ran off the road and opened the door to one of the burned out cars. A skeleton fell out into the street in front of him, the head breaking off from its body, its gaping mouth staring up at him in a silent scream. He was reminded of the Red Painted Canyons of the Haja and the screaming skeletons.

  
He stood shaking, then slowly backed away from the car. Somewhere a couple of blocks behind him he heard car engines. But these were large vehicles. He couldn’t understand what was happening. This area was completely isolated from everything and the military Jeeps that had been chasing the Chariot stopped at the barrier fence. 

  
He crouched behind the burned out car, looking behind him to see if he could get a glimpse of the trucks that he could hear. Then he saw them. Two large military troop transports. “What are they doing here?” He said out loud. They were headed toward him. Maybe the plane that had flown overhead spotted him, though he didn’t think they could see him through the orange haze. 

  
He turned and ran between two buildings and across another street then between two houses. He could hear the troop transports on the road he had just crossed. He quickly jumped behind a hedge, laid on his stomach and looked toward the street.

  
He saw a line of soldiers passing in the street in front of him, looking in the windows of buildings, running up to the doors of houses and kicking them in. He counted twenty soldiers, all in HAZMAT suits walking up the street. He stood and started running between the yards again, trying to get as far away as possible. They must have turned off the electrical barrier long enough to let them in to look for him.

  
When he ran across another street, he heard a truck engine and saw another troop transport round the corner and headed his direction. He ran as fast as he could in the HAZMAT suit, darted between two more houses and kept going without stopping and looking behind him. He didn’t know if the soldiers in the transport had spotted him, but he wasn’t going to wait to find out.

  
He climbed over chain link and wooden privacy fences, sometimes falling from the top as his HAZMAT suit got tangled. He ran through gardens and through hedges, not stopping to see if he was being followed. Then there was a tall fence blocking him.

  
He was at the Los Angeles River. But it wasn’t like before. He had been to the river many times with his dad. The fence by the river had always been a normal chain link fence, a meter or so high. But his was tall like the barrier fence. And the river was high. It was never like this. In the Spring, snow melt from the mountains would cause it to rise, but this was October. Many parts of it could be waded across this time of year. Then he remembered, they said they had dammed it past the red zone to stop the contamination from the dirty bomb.

  
Will looked down the fence and saw there was a line of tall steel poles in the ground a meter away from the fence and spaced maybe fifty meters apart. He looked up and saw red electrical components at the top of the poles. “An electric barrier,” he said. Will looked around on the ground, found a rock, threw it toward the fence. There was an electrical charge and the rock exploded. They had not only put up a barrier fence all around the red zone, they put one up all along the river inside the red zone. They really didn’t want anyone near it. But, if everyone had died, why would they need another fence _inside_ the red zone along the river?

  
He heard the truck engine behind him and a block over. He was trapped. But he thought if he could get along the river, he might be able to find a place to hide. He knew homeless people had lived down here for years because there was cover under the bridges. 

  
He ran down the fence line beside the river, staying away from the invisible electrical barrier. Ahead of him was a street with a bridge crossing the river. He headed toward it. He climbed up to the road, so he was above the river now. He started to cross the bridge when he heard the helicopter. He looked behind and above. He had been spotted; the helicopter was lowering toward him. Along the rail of the bridge the chain link fence kept people away from the river, but he couldn’t see the posts for an electrical barrier here. But what good would it do? If he got to the other side, he would just drop into the water and it was contaminated. Or was it? They had been lying about so much. And those cars that had been attacked bothered him, though he wasn't sure why.

  
He picked up a small pebble and tossed it toward the fence over the river along the bridge. He was right, there was no electrical barrier here. He looked up to the top of the fence. It was only three meters from the bridge to the top here, with barbed wire slanting in. Weird he thought. He looked down to the brown water. It was a relatively easy climb from the bridge to the top of this fence, but it was an impossible climb from the river to the bridge then to the top of the fence if you were inside trying to get out. He had an epiphany. They had attacked people on the freeway fleeing the city. They didn’t put the fence up to keep people _out_ , they put it up to keep people _in_. What’s going on here? He looked up at the helicopter, now hovering over him.

  
“Here goes,” he said, and started climbing. At the top of the fence, he laid over the barbed wire. The HAZMAT suit protected him enough he couldn’t feel the barbs. He only hoped they didn’t puncture the suit. He looked down into the water. “I think this is a real bad idea,” he said. He looked back up at the helicopter. A man was pointing a gun out the side. He knew they wanted him alive, so he assumed they were going to stun him. He leaped just as he heard the sound of the laser fire.

  
He landed in the water and was pulled under by the weight of the suit. He stroked hard, and was able to get his head back to the surface, but the weight pulled him back under. He hadn't thought it would be so heavy in the water. As he began to sink, the sky was no longer orange, it was blue, and he could hear his sister Judy yelling for him. Then he was no longer in a HAZMAT suit, floating to the bottom of a contaminated river, nor was he in a river in West Virginia when he was eight years old. He was in a space suit, floating slowly away from the Jupiter 2. I was right he thought, it’s your deaths that pass before your eyes at the end.


	18. Chapter 18

"Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other."

\- H.P. Lovecraft

Part II: A Fever of the Gods

  
John brought the monocular to his eye and scanned below. “One, two, three, on the West.” They were high on a bluff looking down at the Valley.

“OK,” Terry said.

“One, two, um…three on the North.”

“OK,” Terry repeated.

“Looks like Bob made an impact in the orchards.” John said.

“Yeah. Does an old munitions man proud,” Terry said, looking at the hole in the center of the orchard, the trees flattened all around it. “He said he used floaters. Didn’t explode till they were right over their heads, then another wave didn’t explode until they were lying on the ground. Man’s a genius. They sought cover in his cabin.”

“That was a mistake,” John said. Looking at the huge hole in the center of the trees. “Four guard stands on the West, past the orchards.”

“Got it,” Terry said.

“Nin is going to have to let us know on the East, past the houses. OK, let’s head to the rendezvous,” John said.

They camped back in the mountains with guards posted on two high points overlooking the Valley to make sure no scouting parties had been sent out. The number of guard posts indicated that Bree was very concerned about security, so it wouldn’t surprise them to see scouts in the foot hills and mountains nearby.

“There are six guard posts on the east side,” Nin said. She sat next to Terry and Zana, who seemed to be more and more like her adopted parents. John and Maureen were happy to see this. The girl that they had come to love because of her love for their son, had been an orphan since she was a young child. When they had left the planet before, they had worried about her, and would have taken her with them, but she said she belonged with her people.

“We will take care of the guard posts,” Nin added. She had thirty Dal with her. They could have brought more, but they knew the larger their party, the more likely that the Valley would know they were coming. Nin had assured John and the others that they would have enough people to take the Valley back. Now, they weren’t so sure.

“We counted over three hundred of those fuckers in blue robes,” Brent said. “And maybe another two hundred of those fuckers with red bandannas on their arms.

“None of the tattooed fuckers?” Maureen asked, cracking them all up.

“I think the Haja are trying to figure out who they are now,” Zana said. “The Dal have been watching them and they haven’t really left their canyons since the robot battle. Not sure what they are doing.”

“Still, that’s five hundred people at least,” Brent said. “We have less than fifty.”

“You getting scared, Brent? Or just old?” Nin teased the big man. They had developed a strong relationship since the first time they had met, when Brent looked at the small girl, wondering what all of the talk was about her. Then he saw her in the battle for the city. Now that they were on the same side, he watched out for her like a young niece.

“I still have a couple battles left in me child. I’m just worried about a tiny little thing like you getting stepped on in those fucker’s haste to escape from me.” The thought of the dangerous girl getting trampled by retreating warriors was enough to make them all laugh again.

“That being said, we are vastly outnumbered,” John added.

“We’ll be fine,” Nin responded.

“You sure?” John asked her. “I mean, if you think the people left in the Valley are going to be any help when the fighting starts, remember, they killed the adults. You might have a few hundred kids left, with no weapons.”

“We’ll be fine,” Bob added. “No one knows this valley like me, except for Nin.” Dr. Smith had stayed back in the city. She had told Bob that she had risked her life way too many times already and that she would come back to the Valley if they were able to take it. It didn’t surprise John or Maureen when they heard this. She was just getting back to the Dr. Smith they knew.

“What about the kids?” Brent asked.

“Don’t worry about the kids,” Nin said.

“OK,” John said. “Let’s go over it one more time.”

Later, he sat with Ben and Maureen. “No matter what, you two stay right here until we signal you,” John said.

“I don’t think sitting this out is right,” Ben argued. “Especially considering how outnumbered we are.”

“Well, you aren’t a soldier, and you are both here for another reason. If this doesn’t work, you need to get out of here and get back to the Jupiter 2.”

“John, if it doesn’t work, we’re going to try to find the tunnel by ourselves. The possibility here is too important for us to just leave if the attack doesn’t work,” Maureen said.

“You are just guessing about what this is," he answered. 

“But John, if we are correct, Inanna's journal was talking about a laboratory where the engines were being assembled. If so, maybe we can finally figure out what we are missing. If we could reverse engineer one it will change everything,” she said. "What if we could create the rift without a robot? We could travel the universe. We could get more people from Earth. The possibilities are limitless."

The next night, John kissed Maureen and held her close before heading down toward the Valley.

“It isn’t like we thought it would be is it?” Maureen asked him. “Our family is on three different planets now, and you are still at war.”

“I guess we never knew what it would be like,” John said. “But if this is what we need to do to build a future for our kids, this is what we’ll do.”

“A future for our kids. We don’t even know what that will look like anymore,” She said.

They kissed each other goodbye, and John headed off with Terry, Zana and Bob. Nin had left hours earlier with her thirty Dal warriors, and Brent had left an hour later with his twelve soldiers, the remaining force from the Fortuna Mission. 

Several hours later, John and his group stopped on the promontory above the orchard. They didn’t know it, but this was the spot where Judy and Nin had stopped to look back on the Valley when Judy had gone to there to find the girl, arriving in time to help save her from the Haja and Bree’s soldiers.

From here they could be to the floor of the Valley in thirty minutes.

Terry and Zana began unloading their backpacks. Bob took a long sling off of his back as well, and opened it. John did the same. They all began putting the instruments together, then spread out three meters apart and settled down to wait.

Brent led his party down the trail using a map that Nin had drawn for him. The trail ended in the foot hills, and they climbed to the top of a hill and began unloading their packs. Brent stood looking down the Valley along the small river that ran through the center of it. “OK, kid, it’s all up to you,” he said under his breath.

Nin had split her force around the Valley, sending two Dal warriors to all of the watchtowers. The towers were ten meters high, with four guards in each one. Nin knew that two of her warriors would have no problem handling four of Bree’s people, but they had to scale the tower first and they needed to make sure they captured all of the towers silently if this was going to work.

The problem is, there were sixteen towers. She would have to attack one by herself. OK. Maybe we needed thirty one Dal, she thought.

Nin split up with the last two Dal warriors, the ones closest to the tower that she would attack. She had chosen the tower that stood prominently at the end of the Valley, just below Will and Nin's hill, where they used to go for lunch every day when he lived with her in the Valley. The hill where he would go to visit her somehow, when he was no longer on the planet.

She waited in the woods, thirty meters from the tower. It was a cloudy night, but the moon was bright, so she waited for clouds to pass in front of it. Then she crawled in the grass toward the tower. The Dal wore white clothes, but they had muddied them on the banks of a mountain stream when they began their descent. Still, she took her time across the grass, crawling on her belly until she was beneath the tower.

She looked up toward the top. She heard the soft voices of the guards talking. She took her long sword off, then pulled out her climbing grips and began wrapping her feet and hands. When she was ready, she looked around the Valley one more time, then up toward the tower, then she wrapped her hands and feet around the post, the grips biting into the wood. She began her ascent.

She climbed slowly and silently, and stopped just below the top, hidden by the short wooden wall they had built to enclose the top of the tower. She listened quietly to the voices and the footsteps.

Three men and one woman, she thought. Two men talking to each other and not moving. The other two pacing. One slowly with light steps. The woman. The other had heavy steps. This was a big man. She wanted to dispatch him first. Hopefully, the other two would stay together talking for a few more minutes.

She listened closely to the footsteps of the woman and the big man. The man was close now to her spot just below the platform. He stopped. Waited. Turned and walked away from her. She reached up with both hands to grip the top of the wooden wall, just using her fingertips. In one move she pulled her body up with her fingers and flipped over the wall, landing lightly behind the man. She was able to leap on his back, putting her hand over his mouth and dragging a blade across his throat before the others even saw her.

She let the man fall and leaped toward the two guards who had been standing and talking. She drove her blade into the mouth of one guard, stifling his scream, and drove a point dagger under the throat of the other one, running it through his mouth and piercing his brain, killing him before he hit the ground.

She turned on the female who was bringing a laser gun up, her face registering her surprise and fear. The woman died with that look on her face, as Nin leaped across the platform, bringing one hand up to the barrel of the laser to keep her from aiming it, and slashing her throat with her blade.

She quickly looked at all four guards, then took her belu out, tipped it to the air, and blew a silent message to the other Dal. Since she was alone, the others had waited until getting her message before sending their own. Now she began hearing the returned whistles from the rest of them, all of them impossible for a normal human to hear, unless they had been trained by the Dal to pick up the sound. She knew Jerry would hear it. The huge animal was with Bob back on the ledge. Bob had wanted her to take him with her, but she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to control him. When there was a battle, he had a mind of his own.

Up on the ledge, Zana said, “That’s it. The towers are down.”

“All of them?” John asked.

“All of them,” she answered.

“Wow,” He said.

“See what I mean?” Terry asked. “If we had been fighting the Dal in Asia they would have kicked our ass.”

“Yeah,” John said. “Let’s do this.” They shouldered their weapons and moved down the trail toward the orchards. The URI who had stayed in the Valley had built a little community of shelters there, near where Bob’s cabin had been. It looked like they wanted to separate themselves as much as possible from Bree and his cult members.

  
Nin climbed back down the tower, retrieved her long sword, dashed back in to the woods, then worked her way quickly toward the hills where Brent and his people were waiting. When she was close she whistled, letting them know it was her approaching. A whistle came back, and she continued until she found them, armed and ready, crouching in the trees between two foot hills.

“You OK?” Brent asked her when she appeared through the trees.

“Got a splinter I think.”

He laughed. “You ready?”

“Yes. Follow me.” She turned and led them through the woods.

The plan was to meet the other Dal and converge on the big house where Bree had moved after Nin, Bob and Dr. Smith fled the Valley. They had been watching for two days from the mountains, and most of Bree’s people had moved into the lower level of the house and the small homes closest to it, after they had killed the Eridu adults. The children seemed to be throughout the Valley, used for slaves. They had hoped there was one place they had been kept so they could free them, but that wasn’t the case.

The Dal and Brent's soldiers were well hidden throughout the gardens near the house. They waited for the signal. It would be loud.

Out in the orchards, Bob led the others through the tunnel he had built, coming out in the large tree near the place where his old cabin had stood, now just a pit with the downed trees surrounding it. They split up. Terry and Zana closed in on one side of the URI’s small group of shelters, John and Bob on the other. When they were in place, John gave the signal and the four of them fired old fashioned grenade launchers into the shelters, some of the arms that Brent's people had salvaged from the Fortuna compound when they escaped into the forest. They had lasers with them, but they wanted the disorientation that the explosions would create.

“There it is,” Brent said. They charged the large house, Brent leading his special forces, Nin leading the Dal.

The guards that poured out of the compound were slaughtered by the Dal with their cross bows. The Dal stepped over the bodies on the lawn, drawing their swords as they rushed in the house from four sides.

Nin knew exactly where she was going. Inanna had made her room at the very top of the house, and she was sure that Bree would have taken her room.

When she was at the bottom of the wide marble stair case, two guards came down, lasers drawn. She dove behind a couch in the room at the bottom of the stairs, quickly crawling to the far side where she came up firing her cross bow into the two guards as they aimed their lasers. They hadn't expected her to be so fast.

The guards dropped and Nin ran past them up the stairs. On the next level, a guard ran into her, almost shoving her back down the staircase. She slid to the man’s left, brushing him by her and sticking a knife in his ribs as he fell forward down the stairs. She climbed to the top level.

  
In the gardens below, Brent and his fighters unleashed torrential firepower on the dwellings around the big house where they knew that Bree’s people lived. They had planned to blow up the dwellings, but they didn’t know if any of the kids were being held there. Nin had kept telling them not to worry about the children, which seemed pretty cold for her, but she was a warrior. Brent figured she considered them collateral damage. Still, he wasn’t that person anymore, and had told her they would only attack the people as they came out, trying to avoid killing any of the kids if they could.

Bree’s people were slaughtered. Only a few of them really had military experience. 

The Dal made their way through the house, killing everyone they found. Nin was at the top of the staircase. She peaked around the hall but no one was there.

She ran down to Inanna's old room, shoved the door open and dove in, rolling and expecting to be fired on. There was nothing. She looked around. She ran out to the balcony, but he wasn’t there. She had two warriors posted outside the tunnel on the other side of the mountain in case he tried to escape, so hopefully if he had taken the tunnel they would have him.

  
Out in the orchards John and the others walked through the damage. After the initial grenade attack, they used hand lasers to finish off the URI.

“I have fifty,” John said.

“Yeah, so where’s the rest?” Terry asked.

“Shit,” Bob said.

Nin looked out in the middle of the Valley. The sun was coming up and she could see URI and Bree’s warriors walking from the trees. Maureen and Ben were with them, their hands tied behind their backs. They were led to the middle of the field.  
Nin raised her belu to her lips and blew a silent message.

Zana looked at John. “This is bad,” she said. “Nin wants us to come out.”

They walked from the orchards. They saw the URI and Bree’s people in blue in the field next to the river. This was the spot where they had executed the adults from the Valley. Maureen and Ben were on their knees, hands behind their backs. “Damn,” John said. He dropped his weapons; the others did the same. They began walking toward the field. Bree stood directly behind Maureen and Ben, a sword in his hand, waiting.

  
Nin raised the belu again, blew another silent message, then turned and walked down the stairs stepping over the bodies of the people she had killed.

Brent and his soldiers were outside waiting.

“A scouting party must have found them in the mountains,” Nin said as she joined them. She unbuckled her sword belt, dropping in on the ground.

“Well, kid,” Brent said, as he tossed his weapons on the ground, his soldiers doing the same. “Any ideas?”

“Don't you have a saying about nothing being over until a heavy woman sings a song or something?" She asked. 

"Something like that," he said as he walked beside her.

“Bob taught it to me.”

“Well, you didn’t say it right,” Brent said.

“It never made sense to me anyway,” she said.

They had dropped their weapons and gathered a few meters from where Maureen and Ben were being held by the river. Bree was smiling.

“Sorry,” Maureen said, looking up at John. “We didn’t see the scouting party.”

“It’s OK,” he said. He looked at Bree. “You have us. Let them go. They aren’t fighters.”

“Obviously,” Bree said. “No, this ends now.”

He looked at Nin. “I’ve been looking forward to this, Nin. A lot of people here want to see you dead.”

“Why don’t you kill me, Bree. You like swords,” she smiled at him.

“I tell you what, Nin. You know you can kill me with a sword, so what I’m going to do is have a couple of these guys drown you. Ever see the URI do that? They just keep holding you under over and over again, then pull you up just before you die, then do it again. You never know how long it will last.”

“I would probably use more than a couple, you gonna try to drown this girl,” Brent said.

“Brent,” Bree directed his attention to the big man. “How you ended up with this bunch is beyond me. You had it made here for a while.”

“Yeah, got tired of the company, Ernie.”

“Ernie?” John asked

“Yeah. Ernie. He was like a pilot trainee on the Fortuna. More like a coffee boy.”

“Ernie?” Nin said looking back at Bree, a grin on her face.

“Yeah, that was his name,” Bob agreed. “And Brent’s right, the real pilots used to laugh at him. That’s why I never took him seriously. He was always a pussy. And one thing I learned girl, if you’re born a pussy, you’re gonna die a pussy. Don’t matter if you change your name, don’t matter if you think you learned how to use a sword. You’re still gonna die a pussy.”

John glanced at Bob, wondering why he was goading the man. Bree held all the cards.

“Tell you what, Bob. I owe you for the fifty people that got killed at your cabin. Let’s see how much of a pussy I am.”

He walked out between the two groups, his sword in his hand. “Give him a sword,” He said to one of his men. The man unbuckled his sword belt, walked a couple of meters toward Bob, then tossed it on the ground.

Bob took a step, picked the belt up and looked at it, then tossed it back down. “I don’t need a sword to kick your ass, Ernie.” He stepped toward the man.

Bree smiled. While the two of them were both near the same age, in their mid-forties, and while Bree had some fat on him, Bob was skinny. Bree was almost twice Bob’s size.

“Suit yourself, Bob.” He stepped toward him, holding the sword in both hands.

“At least put it in the scabbard, Ernie,” Nin said. “A true sword fighter draws it for battle.”

The man scowled at her, but he slid his sword back in the scabbard. “I think I will beat him until he can’t stand up, then I will take my sword out and cut his head off, so you can look at it before you go under water the last time.”

“Why don’t you try to beat me until I can’t stand up,” John said.

“Or me,” Brent said.

“Me and Bob, we go back a long way,” Bree said. “I’m going to enjoy this."

He took a step toward Bob. "OK, I’ll beat you with my bare hands, then let you watch me draw the sword. Then I’ll cut your head off with it. Slowly.”

Then he immediately reached for his sword. Bob slid in with one foot, putting his hand on top of Bree’s over the scabbard, stopping the big man from drawing the sword. Now Bob’s face was inches from Bree’s. Bree tried to use strength to pull the sword out, but he couldn’t budge Bob’s hand.

“It’s just physics, Ernie,” Bob said, smiling at Bree. “It’s all about the angle of my arm. But since you cheated, I guess there’s no rules.”

He took his free hand and pulled a thin blade out of his beard. It looked more like a needle. He pushed it deep in Bree’s throat. Shock came to the man’s eyes as blood spurted like a fountain, covering his chest.

“Goodbye, Ernie.” Bob said.

Brent turned to Nin. “I guess he learned a few things from you as well.”

But she was still watching Bob, and she screamed “No!”

She had seen the movement of one of the URI, but Bob was looking at her, grinning, when the spear hit him in the chest and lifted him off his feet and threw him back and on the ground.

Nin pulled two knives that were hidden somewhere in her clothing, threw one into the throat of the URI who had speared Bob, and another into the chest of the URI who was standing over Maureen. She rolled from where she was standing beside Brent, grabbing Bree’s sword as he dropped it, then charged the warriors. They were all stunned at what had happened, and even more stunned to see the small girl attacking them. They moved back, but she was just trying to get between them and Maureen and Ben.

Brent and John saw immediately what she was doing, and even though they were unarmed, they charged the warriors as well. Nin drove Bree’s sword into the chest of one of the URI, dropping him. John hit one between the eyes, and when the warrior next to him pulled a machete from the sheath on his back, Brent hit him in the head from the side with a powerful fist, and the man crumpled to the ground.

John picked up the machete as the man dropped it, slicing it into another one of the URI, driving him back while Brent grabbed the machete from the man’s sheathe that Nin had killed. The three of them stood between the warriors and Maureen and Ben. The the rest of Brent’s warriors and the Dal joined them, none of them armed, but attacking furiously.

Then the arrows came. Over and over again, pouring into the warriors who were backed up to the river.

The URI and the rest of Bree’s people were falling now.

Brent looked at John. “I think the kids are here.”

They heard screaming and children were running from the fields by the orchards and from the forest on the near side of the river. Hundreds of them carrying swords, knives, and crossbows. Jerry was in front of them, charging across the field until he leaped into the warriors, sending them back in panic.

They were backing up, jumping in the river, making their way to the other side. Then children were swarming from the gardens and the trees and the from among the small homes toward the river, attacking the URI before they could climb up the bank on the other side.

It was over in a few minutes. None of the URI were left alive. A few of Bree’s people had surrendered. John stepped up and got Terry to help save them from the children, who wanted to butcher all of them for what had happened to their families. Nin was kneeling over Bob, gripping both his hands in hers. The others gathered around. There was blood coming from Bob's mouth. “Maureen,” he whispered.

She was kneeling beside Nin, and leaned closer to hear him. “I’m here, Bob,” She said.

“I’m sorry,” he coughed on the words and more blood came from his lips. “For what I did to your son. Tell him…tell Will…I’m…”

“Bob,” Maureen said. “He knows. He forgave you a long time ago. And…I forgive you too.”

Bob looked at Nin. She was crying as she gripped his hands. “Nin, I never had kids. But you were as much my daughter as…”

Then he just died.

Nin held his hands and cried while Maureen kept one hand on her back and one on Bob’s chest.

Jerry walked over and laid down beside Bob, his head next to his.

They were walking among the bodies, looking for survivors. They had convinced the children to back away, and they all sat across the river, still armed, watching closely to see if any of their enemies had lived. John was reminded again of the brutality of this place, and thought of his children and what they had experienced since coming here.

He walked over and sat next to Maureen and Ben. “You two, OK?”

“Yes,” Maureen said. “I can’t get over this place. It’s brutal and violent and beautiful in an odd way. But we need to get the kids out of here.”

“Yeah,” John said.

They looked at Brent, standing with his twelve fighters, only a couple of them had been wounded. Marsha walked up and hugged him.

“We’re home,” He said.

“It’s about goddamned time,” she answered.


	19. Chapter 19

For the first week after Will had disappeared, Judy ran to meet the helicopters and the military vehicles every time they returned to base after searching for him. She had tried to get someone to take her with them to search, but they refused and told her to remain at the military compound. They put two guards on her at all times, thinking this was another Robinson plot to try and free themselves from the control of IA.

After the first week, one of the guards came to her room and told her they wanted to speak to her. They led her down a hall, and into a room where two military officers sat with Dr. Terrell and Dr. Phillips.

Judy immediately knew something was wrong. “What?” She asked, looking at the others in the room.

“Judy, Please sit down,” Dr. Terrell said in a calm voice.

“Tell me what happened!” She said.

“Not until you sit down,” Dr. Phillips said.

Judy sat.

One of the military officers said, “Judy, we have some bad news for you.”

“No,” She said.

“Your brother crashed through the fence into the red zone with the Chariot. He left the vehicle and ran off on foot. They followed him as far as they could, but he got away. Then a helicopter picked him up. He was walking toward the city. He ran from the helicopter toward the river. They thought they had him, but he scaled the fence above the river, and before the gunner in the helicopter could stun him, he made it over the fence and leaped into the river.”

“But what happened to him?” She asked. They could hear anguish in her voice. “The river isn’t deep.” In her mind though, she was thinking about what they had told her about the contamination.

“Well, where he jumped it was pretty deep. He had a HAZMAT suit on, but honestly, we don’t think it would have mattered with the amount of contamination in the river. The suit wasn’t built for use in the water.”

“But what happened to him?”

“We never found his bod…we never found him. We searched the area he had jumped in, and all along the river, but he never came out of the water. I’m afraid he’s gone.”

“You never found his body?” There were tears flowing down her cheeks.

“No.”

“Then he could still be alive,” She said.

“Judy,” Dr. Terrell said. “Things are different here now. That entire area is contaminated. Even if there was any way he survived the river, he would be dead within a couple of days. Maybe hours. The suit would have not been able to save him.”

“We have searched for him all week,” the officer said. “But we are calling off the search. I’m sorry, but there is nothing else we can do.”

Judy just looked at them, tears flowing freely now down her face. She didn’t even wipe them away. “He could still be alive,” she said weakly.

The two officers stood. “Judy, we’re sorry.” They walked from the room.

Dr. Terrell moved from her chair to sit beside Judy. She put her hand on her arm. “Judy, I’m sorry. This isn’t anyone’s fault.”

“What?” Judy looked at the woman. “What do you mean it isn’t anyone’s fault? It’s my fault. I brought him here against his will. I signed him in to the hospital. Everything that has happened to my brother since we went to space was my fault. I killed my little brother.” Then she broke down. laid her head down on the table and cried, while Dr. Terrell rubbed her back. 

It wasn’t until the Jupiter 2.0 entered the atmosphere of Earth when Gary Sargent realized that things had really changed. In the past, they would not be able to get near the planet undetected. But there were no radio signals, no messages of any kind.

Penny, was seated on the flight deck with Gary in the Pilot’s chair and Clark at the navigational Console. Robot stood behind Penny’s chair.

The first night on board the ship, she had told Clark she wanted to speak to them and they walked down to the galley. “Clark, I have something I need to tell you.”

“Is it about Vijay?”

“You knew?”

“I suspected. Look Penny, I can’t say I’m not jealous, but we’re young. We have our whole lives in front of us, and I’m going to be spending much of it in space. I’m not naive enough to think you’re going to wait around for me. And you shouldn’t. After everything that’s happened to you and your family, you need to enjoy life. I’m not angry.”

“Clark…I don’t know what to say. You are more like my brother than anyone I’ve ever met.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

She was thinking about that now as they dropped into Earth’s atmosphere and skirted across the desert below. Enjoy life. Someday she hoped. But first she needed to get her brother and sister back.

“So, we’re going to land in the desert, between Victorville and San Bernardino. We can’t risk them seeing the ship,” Gary said, “I’ll take Penny to the Base tomorrow morning.”

“That won’t work,” Clark said. “You have to stay with the ship. I can fly it, but not like you can. And if they find it, we’re stuck here.”

“I can’t let you kids do this on your own,” Gary said.

“You have no choice,” Penny said. “And you know that. If they catch you, we have no way out of here.”

Gary put the Jupiter down in the desert a couple of kilometers from the Mojave Freeway. Clark and Penny planned to leave the next morning, but Penny woke before dark, and crept down to the garage. She opened the door and climbed in the Chariot. Then Robot was standing there blocking her way. 

She climbed out. "Robot,” Penny said. “You have to stay. They can’t know you are here.”

“Danger,” Robot said.

“I know. But that’s the story of our lives. You have to stay in case we need you though. We are going to find a way to get Will and Judy and bring them back. Robot, can you feel Will?"

The lights in his face shield whirled in various patterns. "No," he said.

"We'll find him," she hugged Robot, and climbed in the Chariot.

She drove through the desert then out to the freeway; took the first ramp she came to and headed south. The air was bad here, but it didn't seem much different than when they had left three years ago, but as she drove through the Cajon Pass that separated the high desert from Southern California, she looked toward the city below and it seemed buried under an orange cloud bank. "Will was right, its so much worse down there," she said. 

“Penny!” It was Gary on the radio. “What the hell are you doing?”

Time for my Will moment, she thought. “I have to do this myself,” she said. “This is my family, and you guys have done so much already. I can’t put you guys in more danger. Besides, if this works, we’ll need you to get us out of here.”

“But what are you going to tell them?” Clark asked.

“I’m just a local that needs to get on the base. Someone is chasing me.”

“Penny, that’s never going to work,” Gary said.

“I can cry on cue.” She said.

“No question,” Clark added. “It’ll work.”

“OK,” Gary said. “We are waiting right here until we hear from you. Don’t do anything stupid, and no more radio communication until you're ready to go."

"Penny," Clark said. "Be careful."

"I will Clark." 

There was little traffic on the freeway as she drove South, and the few vehicles she did pass didn’t seem to think it was very strange to see a Chariot.

When she was a couple of kilometers from the base she exited the freeway and started looking for a place to leave the vehicle.

She drove down a residential street that seemed abandoned, just like her brother had said. When she drove by a house with a large garage with the door open she pulled up in the driveway and got out of the Chariot. She immediately pulled a face mask out of her backpack and put it on. The air was terrible.

She walked up a short flight of steps to the porch and knocked on the door. There was no answer, and she didn’t expect one. She opened the door. It was unlocked. She walked in, and saw that the place had been ransacked. She walked back out to the driveway and drove the Chariot in the garage.

When she pulled the door down, she took a quick photo of the house address and entered it in to her map, just in case she forgot exactly where it was. So many of these streets looked the same and she didn’t know how hard it would be to find it again.

She walked toward the base down empty streets, closed businesses and abandoned houses. She heard a couple of cars off in the distance, but none of them came near. An hour later, she stood behind a line of brown bushes a block from the front gate of the base. She could see people inside, but there was very little movement near the gate. No vehicles were going in or out.

“Here goes,” She said. “She pulled her hair out of her pony tail, then ran her fingers through it, making it look as messy as she could. She reached up and tore the shoulder off her shirt. Then she picked dirt up and rubbed it on her face. She closed her eyes, and thought about the cell that the Haja had kept her in. She thought of waking up to the clinging of a key, and watching the door open. She saw the three tattooed Haja warriors walk into the cell. She started shaking. Then she was crying. “On cue,” She said. She ran from behind the bushes on to the frontage road leading toward the base.

“Help me!” She yelled, running down the street toward the base.

She kept screaming as she ran. “Help! Help me!”

She could see the guards in the small building looking at her. One of them walked into the street as she ran toward them.

“Help!” She yelled.

“The base is off limits!” The man shouted as she grew closer.

“They’re chasing me! Help me!” She grabbed the man by his shoulders, but he pushed her off.

“Hey!” Penny saw a female guard walk out of the small guard station. The woman walked up and took Penny’s wrists. “What happened?”

“The base is off limits to civilians!” The male guard said.

“Please!” Penny grabbed the woman. “There’s three of them. They…they…please help me.”

A Jeep pulled up from inside the based and the gate opened, and she was surrounded by guards holding laser rifles on her. “What are you doing here?” One of them asked.

“Hey, can’t you see she’s been hurt?” The female guard yelled at them. She turned to Penny, “It’s OK, you’re safe,” The woman said.

“This base is off…” the male guard started.

“Stand down,” An officer had stepped out of the Jeep. “Call the clinic,” He said to the female guard.

She pulled Penny into the guard shack. “Just calm down. Sit here. Did they hurt you?” She asked.

Penny sat in a folding chair. She was shaking. “They…they…” She hid her face in her hands and sobbed.

The guard put her arms around her. “You’re safe, I’m going to get you some help. We have a hospital here.”

She called into her radio. “I need someone from the clinic at the gate. We have a civilian, I think she was assaulted.”

A few minutes later a military Jeep pulled up at the gate and two women walked in the guard shack.

Penny was still crying, and the female guard was standing beside her with an arm around her.

One of the women said, “Can you tell us what happened?”

“There were three men. And they…they…” She started crying, snot running out of her nose.

“That’s all I’ve been able to get out of her,” The guard told them.

“It’s OK, we’ll take her to the hospital,” one of the women told the guard. They helped Penny outside and got her in the Jeep.

The female guard walked out where the male guard was standing. She looked at him. “Fucking asshole,” she said.

Penny was taken into a private room and a female doctor walked in. “OK, can you tell me everything that happened?”

Penny was still crying. “There were three men, and they…” She started crying again.

“Did they rape you?” The doctor asked in a soothing voice.

“No, they tried to. They threw me down and their hands were all over me, but I hit one of them with a rock and got away. But they are out there waiting for me. I can’t…I can’t…”

“It’s OK, you’re safe here. This is a military clinic, so you can’t stay here forever. I’ll examine you and get you something to help calm you down, and you can stay here for a few days. Do you have family close?”

“No, they’re dead,” She started crying again.

“It’s OK. Can you tell me your name?”

“It’s, It’s Sherry.”

“OK Sherry. Let’s get a look at you.”


	20. Chapter 20

“I would love to come back here sometime, Will. Under different circumstances. It looks to be everything we’ve heard it was.”

They had entered the city walls through a hidden passageway just where the smuggler said it would be. They had paid the man well, but they weren’t concerned. They didn’t expect him to fuck over Will Robinson.

Now the two of them walked down the main thoroughfare of the Ancient City. The street was of thick cobblestone, wide enough that twelve men could walk abreast down the center. The buildings on both sides were decorated with etched stone and colorful murals and everywhere were paintings of the royal family. They had been a monarchical dynasty since before written time, each one a mirror image of the one who had come before. All male, tall, blond, with chiseled features and gray eyes. They married within their blood line to keep it pure, and rumor had it that any offspring that suffered abnormalities due to recessive genes was quickly and quietly disposed of. Only the most beautiful heirs would ascend to the throne, though the problems with mental illness were harder to discern. This current ruler was only in his twenties, and it was said he may be the worst in generations. But they weren’t here for him, they were here for their sister.

They entered a wide courtyard with stunning marble statues around the perimeter and a beautifully carved fountain in the center with a sliver basin. Will turned to Judy. “Hey, wait back there in the alley so they can’t see you.”

“Why? You might need me,” She answered.

“We’ll need you when they are chasing us. I’m not concerned about getting her free. We know where they have her. But we’ll need help getting back to the wall. And…”

“I know Will, don’t kill anyone. I’ll fire over them, don’t worry.” She smiled at him. He was twenty eight, a man in every sense now, but still a boy in his heart. He had seen more in his life than anyone should, but he had grown into it. She remembered when she and Penny took care of their younger brother. The roles had been reversed now. He was their rock. Though he would claim it was the other way around, still. And his lust for life that the family had feared was gone forever when he was thirteen and fourteen was back. The only real change was that he was fearless, almost to the point of being careless and his sisters worried about that like they used to worry about him being afraid of everything. She saw the look in his eyes now…the grin on his face as he anticipated the action that was to come.

She hugged him. “Be careful, Will.”

“Always. It won’t take long, but you’ll hear it.” Then he was gone.

She walked back to the alley, stepped into the shadows and drew two hand lasers and waited. Fifteen minutes later she heard the explosion.

Judy sat up in bed. She had dreamed of the city again. She knew it was the same city that she had seen in her vision back on the Amber Planet when she was taking care of Penny after the battle. Penny had had the same vision, or dream, or whatever this was. But this was a different time. They were younger. And she wasn’t with her sister, she was with Will. Will as a young man. That would never happen now, she thought.

She laid back down and brought a pillow over her face. She wanted to shut out the memories. All that had happened. Her brother was dead. He was dead and it was her fault. It all started when she had jumped into the freezing water. Everything that had happened to him from that moment was because of her act. An act that she had done to protect him. Had she never done that he never would have found Robot. Never would have become so important to so many people. Never been taken back to the planet by the robots, never had to endure the months of isolation in the cage, never been captured by the Haja, never been important to IA. He would be a fourteen year old boy today, going to school on Alpha Centauri, preparing for his future.

She didn’t cry. She was all cried out. She just breathed into the pillow and thought about everything that had gone wrong in the last two years. All of it her fault.

Penny waited until it was almost evening before she got dressed and left the hospital room. She knew Judy was staying in a room at the administration building. She was pretty sure Judy had told her she was downstairs in a basement area. She didn’t know how tight security was, but she decided the only thing she could do was start looking. Her dad had always said, just walk in like you own the place.

She walked down the hall, saying “Hi,” to a couple of nurses, then toward the front lobby and up to a desk where a young man was sitting behind a computer. “Can I help you?” He asked.

Penny gave him her most radiant smile. The man immediately smiled back.

“I hope so,” She answered. “Where is the administration building for the base? I was here to see my sister, and my aunt works over there in housekeeping. She’s supposed to give me a ride home.”

“Sure. Go out the door and across the parking lot. If you go in the lobby they’re going to ask you a ton of questions, so if you just need to get down to housekeeping, walk across the street and go to the end of the building and turn the corner. There will be a side door leading downstairs. There’s a break room and stuff down there. I’m sure someone can tell you where she is.”

She followed the man’s directions and found the door and walked down a hall into the basement. There were several storage rooms, and she saw a couple of people as she walked by. She just smiled at them and kept going. She eventually came to the break room. It was late afternoon and there were only a couple of women sitting and drinking coffee and a man in the far corner. They looked up when she walked in.

“I’m looking for a friend of mine," she said. "She used to live in my neighborhood, but she works on the Resolute now. She comes back when the ship is here, and I believe she stays in a room downstairs here somewhere.”

The women just looked at each other, but the man in the corner said, “Judy?”

“Yes! Judy. Do you know where she is?”

“Yeah, she stays in a room down the hall and around the corner. Go to the end, turn right, then try the third door. She’s probably there. She’s not been out much for a while.”

“Thanks so much!” Penny said, and quickly left the room.

When she found the door she thought about knocking, but instead she just pushed it open. Her sister way lying on the bed on her back, a pillow clutched to her face.

“Judy?”

She moved the pillow and her eyes popped open. “Penny? Penny!” She sat up.

Penny ran over and sat beside her, and the sisters hugged. Judy looked horrible. Something was wrong.

“Judy, what happened?”

Her sister didn’t answer, she just kept her arms around her. Now Judy was crying. When she stopped she moved back and said, “Penny, how did you get here? What are you doing?”

“Can we talk in here?” Penny asked, not trusting anything.

“I think so, it was just a staff room that Will and I were sharing. We looked everywhere when we first got here, but didn’t find bugs or anything. When he went to the hospital the second trip here they just gave me the same room.”

“So, can we go see him now?” Penny asked.

Judy just looked back at her sister and her eyes welled up with tears again.

“What? Where’s Will?” Penny’s voice was rising.

“Penny…he’s gone.”

“Gone where? Where’s my brother?”

Judy took her sister’s hands and began telling her what happened.

“He’s not dead, Judy.”

“Penny, they don’t think there’s any way he could have survived in the river,” Judy was still crying, but Penny was in no mood to comfort her.

“Our brother is not fucking dead, Judy! There is no Goddamn way he survived that cage and two battles and the Haja and those bastards in the city on the Amber planet beating him and that fight in the jungle just to die in a fucking river five kilometers from the house he grew up in! No. Fucking. Way.”

“Penny, things here are different. The river is contaminated. He jumped…”

“All we know is what IA is telling us. We don’t know the river is contaminated. We don’t know there was a virus, we don’t know there was a dirty bomb. We don’t know anything! Our brother is not fucking dead and you need to stop thinking that! You should know better by now. Will would never give up on you. Don’t you dare give up on him!”

Judy sighed. “So, what’s going on, why are you here?”

Penny told her the story.

“So they aren't even taking colonists to Alpha Centauri on these trips?" Judy asked. "I mean, they _have_ kept us separated from the colonists on the two trips we've taken. We just assumed it was making sure they could watch us all the time."

"Yeah," Penny said. "We think they are staging them at the new facility on Alpha."

"And Will thought they would eventually take them all to the Amber Planet. He said he thought IA was trying to create their own space, where no one would have oversight. They wanted him to take a lot more of their people and equipment there but he kept pushing back. He said he thought they wanted to take over the planet, just like they tried to twenty years ago with the Fortuna Mission. And with him in the hospital, they've been able to do that."

“But Don doesn’t think they can use the robot for many trips," Penny said. "It was in pretty bad shape. It’s a good thing Will sent Robot with Gary and Clark.”

“I just haven’t trusted everything Will told me,” Judy said. “He’s had so much to deal with, and so much has happened to him, I just wanted to get him help. I listened to the doctors. And they showed me the tests. Even the scars on his temples. They said he did it himself. There was no evidence of anything. It just made sense that he was making this up.”

“Judy!”

“I’m sorry. I mean imagining it. But that’s not the worse thing I did. I…I told him I didn’t want to hear about the room he was in and how he couldn’t sleep. Penny, I saw the cage. I’m the only one who did. I…couldn’t imagine what that was like for him. It’s the same thing I did on the Resolute when I told him he didn’t belong in space.”

“Judy, how could you do that?”

“I don’t know. I…I have to tell you something. Something that only Will and I know.”

“What?”

“Remember when we all went rafting, and Will and I went on the Upper New River by ourselves that day?”

“Yes. The rest of us did the Gauley, but you said you were sick. We all knew you were lying, because Will was so scared.”

“He almost died that day, Penny. And it was my fault.”

“What! How?”

“We saw a whirlpool; you know how you can surf one in a raft?”

“Yeah, Dad loves to do that.”

“Well, we did that, and Will fell out, and then I fell out the other side. His foot got caught in the rocks, and his head was just under the surface. His face was tilted up, trying to breath. I had to go back upstream then swim down to him. I've felt guilty about it ever since. You have no idea how close it was. I don’t think Will does either. I was so upset; he was so busy trying to make me feel better.”

“Like Will does.”

“Yeah,” Judy says. “Like Will does. We haven’t spoken about it since. But ever since that day, I have felt so guilty…and worried about him so much. I felt like it was my job to keep him safe. To protect him. And sometimes I really fucked up when I tried. I said the wrong things. I did the wrong things. But…I just wanted him to be safe.”

“That’s why you jumped in the water when the Jupiter sank. It was more than a big sister taking care of her little brother.”

“Yeah. It was…me trying to make up for what I did that day on the river. But more than that. You were only four when mom and dad brought him home from the hospital. You probably don’t remember.”

“I remember Judy. They handed him to you to hold. I was too little. But I rubbed his little head. He was so warm.”

Judy smiled. “Yeah. And they told me I was his big sister, and he would always look up to me. That I needed to watch out for him. That made such an impression on me. I think, because as great as Dad was, since I never knew my biological father, I wanted to make sure Will never worried about family. That no matter what, he could count on his big sister. Then when Dad was gone so much and Mom worked all the time, I felt responsible for him. For both of you. But Will was…”

“Vulnerable.”

“Yeah.”

Now she was crying, and Penny put her arms around her and held her. When Judy had calmed down she said. “I saw Rose back on Alpha Centauri. She was really upset when I told her what we had decided about Will and putting him in the hospital.”

“You mean what _I_ decided,” Judy said.

“Stop blaming yourself. We all decided. His whole family. We all did the exact opposite of what Will would have done with us. He would have believed in us.”

“But Rose doesn’t know either,” Judy said. “She loves Will. They had a real quick connection, like they have been friends forever.”

“That’s the thing,” Penny said. “When I told Rose, she was so upset and I told her that I appreciated how much she cared about him, and that she was a good friend. And she said she wasn’t just a friend; she was his _eternal_ friend. Like there was some deeper meaning to it. And it was weird. Remember how the Ladore woman, Roana, kept saying Will had to live?”

“Yeah,” Judy said.

“It was like that. Like something was going on that we didn’t know about. Something more. Rose said we should believe whatever Will tells us.”

“Penny, there’s no way I believe him about this alternative universe and the invisible friend or whatever. I mean, I have made so many mistakes with Will in trying to keep him safe. I know that. But you heard that story. You can’t believe it.”

“Listen Judy, I’m not asking you to believe all of that. I’m just asking you to listen to me. I know you’re a doctor and a scientist. Your brain isn’t wired like mine. You have to have evidence. But think about it for a minute. You should have died in the ice. Will should have died in the tree. But him finding Robot saved you both. And everything that happened on the Amber Planet with him. The myths of the boy and the robots. The way the tribes treated him. The Ladore. The Kur who helped in the battle of the city because of Will. And then the dreams. We both shared dreams with him. Dreams that helped him survive. And the way you connected with him and shared a memory with him that kept him from attacking the city. You can’t explain all that away with science. You know that. All I’m asking you to do is the same thing Will would do for you. Believe in him. Even if you don’t believe in all of that. Believe in _him_ , Judy.”

Judy looked at her sister for a long time. “You’re right Penny. I don’t have to believe in all of it, and I can’t explain so much. And you’re right about Will too. He would believe in me. In us. But right now we need to figure out what to do with you. We could wait until the Resolute comes back, but how will Hastings react when he finds out you're here? What about Gary and Clark? Can they help us?”

“No, not until we’re ready to leave. Radio silence until then. They are our exit. If they come to the base there will be fighting. I think Gary would like that, but a lot of innocent people might die too.”

“Yeah,” Judy agreed. “Besides they are on high alert. I guess a Chariot disappeared from the port, and they think there must be a smuggler ring or something operating. The Resolute 2 arrives in a week. Maybe Don can help us smuggle you on board so we can go back. We can signal Clark and Gary once we’re in space so they can leave.”

“But we have to find Will,” Penny said.

“Penny, I said I would believe in him. I mean…try to believe in what he told us, but as far as finding him. They are sure…”

“Jesus Christ, Judy. It's like we didn't just have this conversation!"

"Penny. Its time we faced the truth..."

"Don’t fucking say my brother is dead!”


	21. Chapter 21

Penny had stayed in the small room with Judy for a week, never venturing out. She tried several times to get Judy to leave with her to look for Will, but she refused to admit that their brother might still be alive, and didn’t even want to leave their room. Penny could understand that, she had spent the last two months that way.

She didn’t know what to do. Judy seemed content to wait for the Resolute 2 to come back at the end of the week, then go back to Alpha Centauri and start working again at the hospital. “Penny, you know I would do anything if I thought Will was still alive. But I don’t. We can either live our lives constantly trying to find him on a dying planet, or we can get on with our lives.”

“I can’t believe you even said that, Judy. What happened to you? Is it so easy to forget about Will?”

Tears came to Judy’s eyes. “Penny, you can’t really believe that. I have spent the last two years trying to find Will, trying to save Will’s life, and trying to help him get over all of the things that happened to him because of the things I said to him. I will carry it with me forever. I just…I just can’t fix this. He’s gone.” Then she broke down sobbing. Penny sat beside her on the cot that she slept on and held her. She knew her sister was no longer able to help. It’s like she had broken herself against Will’s stormy life, and she was just unable to do it anymore. Penny understood. Judy had been their strong older sister for their entire life, but she had endured a lot as well. She just seemed...broken.

The next morning, Penny decided she would have to leave and start looking for her brother on her own. But when she woke, Judy was already up and had brought coffee back for both of them. “Thanks Judy,” Penny said when she took the coffee. She had decided it was time to be a lot nicer to her. “Hey, do you think it’s OK for me to walk outside? This small room…”

She didn’t finish and Judy looked at her. They were both thinking the same thing. Will had spent months in a tiny cage by himself. Now Penny felt guilty for what she was even thinking.

“Absolutely not,” Judy said. “Especially not now. The first transport from the Resolute is due in a few days, and they caught someone yesterday that might have been involved with hijacking the Chariot. Tensions are high.”

Penny waited another couple of days, but she knew she had to do something. She refused to just go back to Alpha Centauri until she was sure about Will, and she wasn’t sure what IA would do once they discovered her. Judy had left to pick up food for them, and Penny walked into the hall and right into a man in military fatigues. He was young, maybe eighteen or nineteen, and had rusty red hair.

“Oh, hi,” He said. “I was coming to see Judy.”

“Um…she’ll be back in a minute or two, you can just hang out here if you want.” She walked on by him.

“Wait a minute. You’re Penny.”

She turned and looked at him. “No I’m not.”

“Yeah you are, Will showed me a picture of you.”

“You know my brother?” She asked, hopefully.

“Yeah, we became friends. My name’s Sonny. I’m sorry about what happened…I…”

He wanted to say something else, but had stopped himself.

“What?” She asked.

“I feel kinda responsible. I took him off the base to your old neighborhood last time the Resolute 2 came back. I’m afraid whatever he saw there might have really effected him. I…”

“Can you get me off the base?” She asked.

“No, if something happened to you too.”

“Listen, you know I’m not on the Resolute 2, right?” She asked.

“Ah yeah. That’s right. You’re supposed to be in space.”

“I came here on another ship. It’s up in the desert near Victorville. I have a Chariot hidden close. I just need to get to it. I came here to find my brother but then…then…” she started crying, then she put her arms around the young man.

“It’s OK. It’s OK,” He said, patting her back.

“If the Resolute comes back and IA finds me I’m going to be in so much trouble,” She cried into his neck.

“OK, Penny. OK, I’ll help you. I can take you to the Chariot you left, but that’s all I can do, OK?”

“Yes,” she cried.

Penny was dressed in fatigues, sitting beside Sonny in his Chariot. There hadn’t been any problem getting off the base. A lot of military vehicles and Chariots were moving out and they just fell in line behind them.

“What’s going on?” Penny asked.

“They think they have the smugglers trapped in a warehouse area.”

“They know who did it?” She asked.

“Yeah, they caught some girl and worked her over and she told them. I hate these fucking people we work for.”

“IA?”

“Yeah, most of the military pulled out. We might look regular military, but IA’s in charge of everything.”

“So they tortured some girl?” Penny asked.

“Yeah. Tough little thing from what I was told. But in the end she talked.”

Penny was shaken. She would never forget the cell and the Haja.

She directed Sonny off the freeway and into the neighborhood where she had left the Chariot. She was mapping it on her radio. He pulled up in the driveway where she told him to stop.

“Make sure it’s still there before I leave you,” Sonny said.

She walked up and opened the garage door. The Chariot was where she had left it. She walked back and Sonny lowered the window. “I don’t know how to thank you Sonny.”

“No problem. Get out of here. It’s all dying.”

“What are you going to do?” She asked the boy.

“I don’t know, long term. Right now gonna try to help find this kid.”

“Kid?”

“Yeah. The girl said it’s some kid leading this smuggler ring or whatever they are. Kid named Randy Carter. What do I know? Take care Penny.”

Penny watched him leave, then climbed in the Chariot and started it and backed out. Now what, she thought. Head up to the desert and see if she could get Gary and Clark to help find Will? Try herself? She stopped the Chariot at a crossroad. North to the desert or back South the way Sonny had gone to find the kid. Randy Carter....Randy Carter. That sounded familiar. _Randolph Carter!_

She turned south, looking up in the sky. She could hear helicopters in the distance, but visibility was too low for her to see. But she knew they were there searching for Randy Carter. And she knew that wasn’t his real name.


	22. Chapter 22

The water closed over Will’s face shield. He kept his eyes open, wanting to see the sky until the last second. The polluted, orange sky. He was holding his breath, but was at the point of giving that up. The water had seeped into the helmet and he knew once he sucked in for air, it would fill his lungs. He thought of Judy, trapped under the ice, waiting to die. How horrible that would have been. Hours and hours, just waiting to die. He hadn’t stopped to think about how bad that had been for her, but now he understood. He wished he could see her and tell her. Tell her how sorry he was that she had gone through that. For him. To keep him from jumping in the ice. She loved him so much.

He could no longer hold his breath; he let it out and the water came in. He thought the sky was growing closer, but he passed out. Instead of total darkness and silence, he heard voices. He was surrounded by beings that he couldn’t see, voices he couldn’t understand. He felt as if he was rising. Was he having an out of body experience in his final seconds of life, he wondered, but then he felt as if his back and butt were being dragged on a hard surface.

He expected to see his body below him as he floated away. Instead he felt lips cover his. Soft lips. Breath filling his lungs. Pressure on his chest, over and over, then the lips again and breath. He sucked in air, coughed up water. He was turned on his side and and he vomited water onto the concrete. He coughed in and sucked air. Hands turned him on his back.

“Is he dead?” A voice said.

He opened his eyes. A girl was leaning over him. Brown skin, full lips. Dark eyes. “Are you alive?”

He looked up into the faces of several kids. “Yes,” he answered. Then the brown skinned girl put a gun in his face. It was an old fashioned hand gun. Not a laser. The barrel was pushed under his nose.

“Who the fuck are you?” The girl snarled at him, pushing the gun deep enough to hurt him.

“Why did you…” he coughed…“save my life if you’re going to kill me?” He asked.

“I said, _who the fuck are you_?”

He just looked back at her.

“I would rather kill you than not, so just give me an excuse.” She was Latina, and spoke with a slight accent. There was another girl near her age there, and two boys who may have been twins. They were African American. Then a boy, maybe sixteen or seventeen, walked up.

“What are you doing here?” The boy asked Will. He was also Latino.

“I’m running…

“Silvia, could you please take the gun out of his face so he can talk to us,” The boy said to the girl.

She moved the gun away, but still held it pointed at Will.

“I was running from some guys with guns,” Will explained. “And the only way to escape was to jump in the river. I didn’t know if my HAZMAT suit would protect me, but I didn’t have a lot of options.”

“The damn suit almost killed you,” The girl said. “What stupid fuck would jump in the river in a HAZMAT suit?”

“But it’s contaminated…”

“Guess you’re dying now then,” she hissed at him.

“Now…what are you doing here?” The boy asked again.

“I’m hiding from the military. They were chasing me.”

“Why?” the other girl asked, the one who hadn’t spoken yet. She was light skinned and blond, with green eyes, maybe fourteen or fifteen. 

“I don’t know,” Will said.

“The fucker is lying,” said the girl holding the gun. She pressed it against his forehead.

“Silvia, take the gun away from his head,” the teenage boy said. “He’s unarmed.”

She kept the gun pressed into him for a couple of heartbeats, then removed it.

“Who are you?” Will asked.

“We’re asking the questions,” the boy said.

“I was at the military base. I was a prisoner, and I escaped with a Chariot, so they were chasing me because of it. I guess they wanted to get it back.”

“Now, can I shoot him?” Silvia asked.

“You are still lying,” the boy said. “They don’t come in the red zone to get a Chariot back. You’re important to them.”

Will pushed himself up to a sitting position. “OK. My mother worked on the Resolute program. She’s a scientist. They think I’m dangerous because my family knows a lot about the space program. They’ve been holding me and my sister as prisoners so my mother will keep working for them.” He couldn’t tell them the truth, but he thought he could get away with stretching it.

“What’s your name?” The other girl asked.

“Randy Carter,” Will lied.

Then they heard a helicopter.

“Come on,” the girl with the gun and the older boy grabbed Will and pulled him to his feet and ran under the bridge, followed by the other children. Silvia pushed Will ahead of them into the darkness.

The stayed hidden until the helicopter flew off in the distance. Then they walked back into the daylight.

“So where are you headed?” The boy asked.

“I thought there might be some people near the river if there were any survivors and if it really wasn’t contaminated. I'm not sure I believe everything I've been told. Like you guys being here. They told us no one is alive over here. I knew homeless people used to live near the river, and I had met some of them before. I thought I might be able to hide here. But after that I was going downtown, just to see it. I really didn’t have anything in mind. I just needed to get away.”

“What about your sister?” Silvia asked with a sneer. She was still holding the gun on him.

“She’s…she’s with them now I think.”

“Silvia, put the gun away,” the older boy said.

“We don’t know him,” She argued.

“He doesn’t look too dangerous,” one of the twins said.

Then a little boy came running down the bank. He must have been hiding somewhere along a line of bushes near the fence beside the river. He looked to be about eight or nine years old.

“Who is he?” He asked the others, looking at Will.

“Randy,” Will said.

“Are you going to hurt us?” The boy asked.

“No. I’m not going to hurt anyone,” Will answered.

Silvia walked over to the boy and put her arm around him. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, Adrian.” Will noticed the resemblance in the two of them.

“You’re brother and sister?” Will asked.

“Yes,” the little boy said.

Will thought of him and Judy at that age and it made him sad. “I’m not here to hurt anyone, Adrian. I’m just trying to hide from the soldiers.”

“You can come with us,” the little boy said.

“No,” Silvia said. “He can’t.”

“OK. Can I leave then?” Will asked.

“You don’t want to go downtown,” the teenage boy said.

“Why not?”

“We were down there. That’s why we came here. The kids are all fighting. They are really just trying to survive, but now all of the food is about gone, so they’re fighting over what’s left. That’s why we’re here. They think the river is contaminated, so no one comes here.”

"So they did lie," Will said. "Everyone isn't dead."

“They’re working on it,” the blond girl replied.

Will looked at her, not understanding. “If everyone thinks the river is contaminated, why did you come here?”

“We’ve said enough!” Silvia said. She hadn’t stopped glaring at Will.

“Silvia, I think he’s OK,” Adrian said.

“Adrian, it’s my job to take care of you. You trust everyone.”

“Adrian” Will said. “She’s right. You need to listen to your sister. You don’t know me and she’s just watching out for you. My sisters are like that. She just loves you. I understand, so I’ll leave, and you won’t have to worry about me.”

He looked at the teenage boy. “Can you tell me what happened though? Is the river really contaminated?”

“We’ve been here for over a year,” The boy said. “None of us died. None of us even got sick. I think they lied.”

“But why?” Will asked. 

“I don’t know. Everyone started getting sick and dying. The oldest people first, then everyone else. Adults mainly. They evacuated people outside the downtown area and put the fence up to close it all off.”

“But why didn’t you leave?” Will asked.

“We were in the red zone, as they called it. We didn’t get the chance. Everyone in the red zone was left inside the fence to die. I guess they decided we would contaminate the others.”

“How many are still alive here?” Will asked.

“I don’t know. Downtown a few hundred kids probably. It’s not good down there," The boy answered.

“Stay with us,” Adrian said.

“No!” Silvia said.

“I’ll leave.” Will looked at Silvia. “It’s really great the way you watch out for him, Silvia. I’m sorry for coming here. I didn’t know you were here, and I didn’t want to cause any problems for you.”

Will started to walk away. “Wait.” The teenage boy said. “Do you want something to eat? There won’t be much downtown.”

Will realized he was hungry. “If you have enough,” he said.

“Fern!” Silvia said. “Are you just going to lead him to our hiding place? You have no fucking idea who he is!”

“Come on,” The boy started to walk down the bank the way Will had been headed.

“Fernando,” Silvia said. “We can’t.”

“Silvia, we have to trust someone,” her little brother said.

She looked down at him, ready to argue. But he just smiled up at her. “OK, Adrian.”

Will smiled at the two of them, missing Judy even more.

The kids led Will up the river. They were going in the direction of the city, though the air was so bad, they couldn’t see the skyline.

The entire river bed had been concreted since the early twentieth century. Much of the concrete bank used to be visible, but the river was much higher now. Will remembered his father bringing him down here when he was eight. John had collected several dozen used sleeping bags from the military, and they packed them in the back of the SUV along with boxes of food and came down here and distributed them to homeless people who were living under the bridges.

Will remembered seeing their hallowed eyes, their desperate looks as they came out from under the overpasses to accept the offerings.

John didn’t just drop the food containers and sleeping bags off and leave, they spent several hours there, talking to people like they were old friends. Then Will realized, some of them did seem like old friends. They knew John’s name, and they seemed happy to see him. Not just for the things that he brought, though they thankfully accepted them. And Will noticed his dad hadn’t spoken to them any differently than he would have spoken to the neighbor next door, leaning over the fence. They talked about politics, the weather, sports. Whatever subject came up.

When they were driving home, Will looked at his father and asked, “Why do they live like that dad?”

John looked at him and said, “Some of them have no choice, because of things that have happened to them in their lives. Some of them have mental issues. A lot of them are veterans." At the time the Asian war had been going on for five years. "Some of them just choose to live here. But what I’ve learned is that they are all just humans who want to be treated like you or I do. They don’t want our judgement and they don’t want our pity. They just want to live, like anyone else. So I don’t ever ask that question. Why they are here. A lot of times they want to talk about their circumstances, but that’s up to them."

“You’ve done this a lot, haven’t you?” His son asked.

“Yeah, for years. I collect things that the military is going to throw away, and bring it down here. That’s why a lot of them know me. It can be dangerous down here, so you don’t want to come by yourself, but I thought you were old enough to come with me this time. Maybe when you’re older, you will be able to help some people too. Just remember, no matter what the house looks like you live in, or what you had for dinner last night, you’re no better than anyone living down here, so don’t act like you are. If you’re real, they’ll know that about you. If you’re fake, they’ll know that too.”

“I had always heard homeless people were crazy,” he said.

“Some of them do have issues. But not all of them. And besides, are the ones that choose to live that way really the crazy ones? People lived that way for a lot longer than the way we have. Providing for themselves by finding food and shelter where they could, but answering to no one.”

Will wondered now what had happened to the people along the river. He hoped they had had time to evacuate them, but he was afraid they had died here. Many of them didn’t trust anything the government told them, and they may have just hidden when the military came to evacuate them.

The kids turned and walked under an overpass, and led Will toward the end of it where the bridge above sat on concrete pillars. As they got close, Will saw there was a metal plate covering a section of the concrete river bed under the bridge. The teenage boy, Fernando, pulled the plate up and turned and climbed down into it. Will followed him, then the others. A couple of meters down, he saw they were in a large, underground room, that Fernando had illuminated with a battery powered lantern. The walls were concrete, with a large metal cabinet on one side. Fernando walked around and turned on a few other lanterns, giving the underground chamber an eerie, yellow glow.

“We think they used this for the aqueduct maintenance,” Fernando said. “Silvia found it when we came down here.”

Will looked around. There were cots with sleeping bags one side. The kids all filed in behind them, sitting around on the floor or the cots.

Silvia and her little brother had not joined them underground, yet, then Will heard them climbing down the ladder. They each had stringers of fish. The fish were small, but there were a lot of them.

“You can eat the fish from the river?” Will asked.

“You just went swimming in it. Does it seem contaminated to you?” Silvia asked, scorn in her voice.

Fernando walked over and took the fish and he and the other girl took them over to a table and began cleaning them. One of the twins put a propane cooking stove on the table next to them and began helping.

“The fish are probably dying out,” Fernando explained. “We seldom find big ones. My dad used to bring me fishing along the river all the time and the bass were huge in some places, but most of the fish we find are small. It’s not the river, it’s the plant life. The climate is too bad for it to grow along the river very well now, and that kill’s off the fish. We’re hoping it comes back. If it does we might be OK here. But who knows?”

Will looked at the kids sitting around the room in the yellow glow. “What are your names?" He asked.

They took turns introducing themselves. The twins were Larry and Jason and the other girl’s name was Tre.

The smell of frying fish soon began to fill the small room.

“Were all of you friends before this happened?” Will asked.

“Yes,” Larry said. “We all lived in the same apartment building near downtown. Silvia and Adrian moved in like a year or so before it happened. The rest of us had lived there a lot longer.”

“Silvia’s dad died in the war, then she and her brother moved there with her mom,” Tre said.

“Tre, I can tell him about my life,” Silvia said, “If I want him to know.”

Tre winked at Will. “She’s not as tough as she thinks she is,” the girl whispered.

Both Larry and Jason said, “Yes she is.”

Adrian brought a plate over to Will. There were several small fried fish on it.

“Here, I don’t have to eat first,” Will said, trying to hand it back.

“The faster you eat, the faster you can leave,” Silvia said, bringing plates over for Tre and the twins.

They sat around on the cots while they ate. Will was surprised. The fish actually tasted much better than he had expected, despite the way they had made the small room smell.

“So all of your parents?” Will asked.

“They died,” Adrian said, sadly. “The adults all died.”

“From the virus?” Will asked.

“That’s the story,” Fernando said. “Or whatever terrorist attack happened after that.”

“A lot of kids died too,” Tre said. “But the survival rate was much better than with the adults. None of the adults survived, not that we know of.”

“Doesn’t make sense does it?” Silvia said.

“She thinks it’s some grand conspiracy,” Fernando said, glancing at Silvia. “Her dad was a survivalist. Had a place up near Apple Valley out in the desert.”

“You’re talking about me like I’m not here,” Silvia said with a scowl at the boy.

“He had lots of guns and taught us how to use them,” Adrian added.

“That’s where the old pistol came from?” Will looked at Silvia.

“It can still shoot a hole in you,” She said.

“So what are you going to do?” Will asked. “Are you going to leave here?”

“How?” Fernando asked. “If we could get out of the fence, there is an electrical barrier around it. And we think they killed the people who escaped after it first happened, before the electrical barrier was installed.”

“Why do you think that?” Will asked.

“We heard them,” Tre said. “Like hunting parties. We had stayed in our apartment building for a while, but Silvia said we needed to leave. She said they were going to kill everyone. We didn’t believe her, but when some of the teenagers got over the fence, we saw men chasing them from the fire escape of our building. We didn’t see what happened, but we heard the laser blasts.”

“So we thought she might not be completely crazy,” Larry said, smiling at Silvia, who just sat in silence as she ate.

“We left and went to the center of the city, thinking we would find some other people, but it was a ghost town,” Fernando said. “Then other kids started showing up. Their parents had all died too. It was OK for a year. Everyone raided the stores for food and stuff. But after a while, we realized no one was coming for us, and the stores were running out of food. A lot of them had already been looted. Kids started breaking off into little groups, then bigger gangs. Pretty soon I got all of us together and we left. Headed out down the river.”

“Everyone thought it was contagious, except for Silvia." Tre added. "She said it was bullshit. She jumped in the river to prove it, and she was right.”

“But everyone believes it, so they stay away. That’s why we’ve been safe,” Jason said.

“But if I got in, you guys can get out.” Will said.

“You climbed three meters up the fence with no barrier around it,” Silvia said. “And dropped into the river. For us to do that, we would have to get forty meters up the fence from the river, then climb over the barbed wire made to keep us inside. But even if we could, then what? Where do we go? It’s not like they are going to take people like us to Alpha Centauri.”

“Why not?”

All of the kids started laughing.

“I don’t get the joke,” Will said.

“They’ve been going to Alpha Centauri for over five years now. Except for when the Resolute disappeared for a while. But the three years before, do you think any of the families in our neighborhood went?” Silvia asked. “What kind of dream world do you live in?”

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” Will said. Then he quickly added, “But I thought every family did the on-line test for first round qualification, then started the approval process if they passed.”

“Where did you grow up?” Silvia asked.

“Lakewood.”

“Figures,” she said scornfully. The other kids all laughed.

Then she saw Will’s face change, and knew their laughter bothered him. She started to ask him if he was going to cry, just to see what he was made of, but said, “Did all of your neighbors take the on-line test?”

“Of course,” he answered. “Everyone wanted a chance to go. We had to wait for our zip code to come up.”

“Yeah, they did it by zip code,” Silvia said. “Ever ask yourself why?”

“No. They just said they had so few spots and it was the best way to make sure no one lost out on the opportunity.”

“Yeah, it was also the best way to stop the undesirables from getting a chance. Do you know what the ZIP in Zip Code stands for?”

“No, I guess I never really thought about it,” he said.

“Zone Improvement Plan. Started in the sixties. Used it ever since to see where the right people lived. Want a bank loan? They look at your zip code. Who gets disaster relief first when something happens? They look at your zip code. Guess when our zip code was called up for the test? Don’t think about it too hard. It never was. And neither was anyone that I went to school with.”

“They just excluded you?”

“Welcome to the real world Randy,” Fernando said.

“I didn’t know,” Will said. He was really bothered by it. He was sure his mother had no idea. Still, he thought about the school on Alpha Centauri and the kids he knew there. He was certain none of them had grown up like these kids. And he hadn’t given it much thought then. He felt even more guilty about his test score.

“I’m going to Alpha Centauri,” Adrian said. “I’m going to be just like Will Robinson.”

Will quickly looked at the little boy. “What?”

“I’m going to be just like Will Robinson. He has a robot for a friend, and he can go anywhere he wants. No one can stop him, or his robot beats them up.”

“Where did you hear this?” Will asked. He was glad the lighting was dim in the room. He was sure he had turned pale and sweat had broken out all over him.

“Everyone knows about Will Robinson,” the small boy said. “He was from here. And he went to space and he became friends with this robot that’s like, six meters tall and he saved everyone on the Resolute. Now he travels through space with his robot and they save people that are in trouble. I’m going to be just like him.”

“OK, Adrian,” Silvia said. “That’s enough about Will Robinson.” She looked at Will. “Some bullshit story everyone started spreading a couple years ago.”

“It’s not bullshit,” Adrian said. “It’s real!”

“Hey, you know you can’t use that word,” his sister admonished him.

“You did!”

“And when you’re my age, you can too.”

“I don’t know, Will said. “It sounds like someone made it up.”

“It’s true!” Adrian argued.

Will just smiled at the boy, but he didn’t know what to think. When Scott told him they had heard about Will and the Resolute, it didn’t make sense to him. Now it sounded like it was a lot more widespread than in Will’s old neighborhood and school. And they knew about Robot. He had no idea how they could have heard about what had happened a year ago. And the story seemed to have legs of its own. Robot was now six meters tall instead of a little over two meters, and he was traveling in a spaceship with Will, rescuing people. He was so glad he had not told them his real name. He didn’t want any part of this.

They had finished eating. “I guess I should get going,” Will said.

“Can’t he stay Silvia?” The little boy asked.

“No, Adrian.”

Will stood. “Yeah, I need to leave. Thanks a lot for the food.”

“Hey, Randy, why don’t you spend the night?” Fernando said. “It’s dark and you don’t want to show up down there at night, that’s usually when they are out on the streets. They might kill you before you have a chance to tell them who you are.”

Will looked at Silvia.

“Whatever,” she said, turning away from him.

“Yes!” Adrian said.

“You sure?” Will asked.

“Yeah,” Fernando said. “I mean, this is all it is, but we can give you a blanket and you’ll be safe here. The only bathroom is up the ladder and outside though.”

“Silvia?” Will asked.

“Fine.” She didn’t look at him though.

Adrian walked over to him and took his hand. “Come on, Randy.”

He led him over to a corner where there were some spare blankets. “No one’s used it but everything’s clean anyway. We wash everything in the river.”

Tre said, “Yeah, everyone thinks the river is contaminated, but it’s probably cleaner than it’s been in a hundred years since most of the people are gone. Silvia took us to this army surplus store when we left the city. Her dad knew about it. That’s where we got the cots.”

Will took his HAZMAT suit off, laid the blanket down, wadded the suit for a pillow and laid down on top of it. The blanket was thin, and it was a concrete floor. He tried to get as comfortable as he could. He had laid his blanket next to Adrian’s cot as the boy asked him to do.

Will turned to his right, then left, trying to get comfortable on the hard floor. Finally he just laid flat on his back.

Silvia walked over toward him and Adrian. “I’m not going to hurt him,” Will said.

She didn’t answer, just walked over to the cabinet against the wall, opened it and took out a sleeping bag and tossed it on Will’s stomach and walked back over to the other side of the room where her cot was next to Fernando.

“Thanks,” Will said, as he rolled out the bag to make a more comfortable bed.

She didn’t answer but when Will looked up at Adrian he was grinning. “She’s not that tough,” he whispered.

“Go to sleep Adrian,” Silvia said. Will just grinned at the boy.


	23. Chapter 23

The next morning they all climbed up the ladder into a gloomy, orange haze. “Air’s bad today,” Fernando said. Then they heard a metal clanging coming down the river, as if there was construction going on.

“Let’s check it out,” Silvia said.

“Randy, we’ll cross the river upstream a little way. We built a foot bridge.” Fernando pointed over to the far bank were there was a line of brown hedges. “That was the old jogging trail. When we move around near the fence we do it over there so we can hide behind the hedges. We’ve been here for almost a year and they’ve never seen us yet. We don’t want them to.”

“What do you think they’ll do?” Will asked.

Silvia looked around to make sure Adrian was out of ear shot. “Kill us,” she answered.

“She doesn’t know that,” Tre said. “They’ve only killed people who escaped the hot zone, so we don’t contaminate them.”

“Look around,” Silvia said. “They have us right where they want us. Someday they’re gonna cross into the red zone and exterminate everything alive.”

“Why would they do that?” Will asked.

“Because we’re a mistake. They don’t want us in their world. Look, why do you think they put the barrier fence up along the river, _inside_ the red zone?”

“I don’t know,” Will said. “I was wondering about that.”

“Because it’s their only weak link. The only place the electric barrier doesn’t run is under water. So if anyone was brave enough to try, they could probably cut through the fence under water beneath the bridge you jumped off and be free. So they claimed it was contaminated by the dirty bomb then fenced it in. No one goes near the river. We didn’t need to cut the fence downtown because storm drains run into the river down there. We just followed one and it ran under the barrier fence near the city. Once by the river, we’ve been on our own. The kids from the city stay away because they think it’s contaminated. The helicopters seldom patrol it, maybe fly by once every couple months. We’ve been safe here.”

“Could you cut it under water to escape?,” Will asked.

“Maybe. But we don’t need to,” Silvia said. “We’re safer here than we would be out there.”

They had come to the makeshift foot bridge. They had roped tires together and laid boards across them.

“Have they seen this?” Will asked as they picked their way across it. “Seems like they would know you were here if they did.”

“They’ve flown over it,” Jason said. He and his brother were following the others over the bridge. “But there were a lot of homeless people down here before this all happened. Probably just think they built it.”

Once on the other side they hurried up the bank to the hedgerow along the fence. “Let me show you something,” Silvia said to Will.

“Here we go,” Tre said sarcastically.

Silvia ignored her. They walked along until they came to a tall, concrete pole, twenty meters high, on the other side of the fence.

“That pole was put up three years ago. It was for the new 8G Network."

“OK,” Will said.

“They kept putting all that money into the network at the same time they were colonizing Alpha Centauri.”

“Yeah, but not everyone was ever going to go,” Will said. “People on Earth would still use it.”

“Maybe,” Silvia said. “But they knew it was all falling apart. First the environment, then the economy was going to collapse. Countries around the world were going bankrupt because of the war. But still, they pushed the infrastructure for 8G. And where? Poor neighborhoods. For the first time, the poor neighborhoods were going to get 8G first.”

“What are you saying?” Will asked.

“Well, we never got 8G, but you know what those poles are for now?”

“No,” Will answered.

“Look at the top.”

Will looked up and saw the electrical component box mounted at the very top of the pole. He knew immediately what it was. “The security barrier,” he said.

“The security barrier,” Silvia agreed. “There is a pole every fifty meters all along the river. You know how far 8G towers need to be apart?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “A hundred fifty meters. But you know what needs the circuits to be a lot closer?”

“The Security barrier.” Will remembered Robot pushing a post in the ground with one hand when his dad was trying to hammer it in on the first planet they crashed on. Their small perimeter fence needed the poles to be ten meters apart.

“Now why would they put the 8G poles fifty meters apart if they could be a hundred fifty meters? Because in a crumbling society, they wanted to spend three times as much money?”

“You’re saying...what are you saying?” Will was confused.

“They planned this, Randy. They never installed those polls for 8G, they installed them for the security barrier that they knew they were going to put up. They installed them over a year before the virus and the dirty bomb.”

“What?” Will looked back up at the pole.

“Randy, her dad was survivalist, remember?” Fernando said. “Everything was a conspiracy to him.”

“You think our own government did this?” Will asked the girl.

“You think they wouldn’t?” Silvia asked. “Look, they installed the poles three years ago, couple years after we began colonizing Alpha Centauri. The 8G was never started. They kept blaming permitting issues, protesters not wanting it running through their neighborhoods, anything they could think of. And then there was this virus. They immediately began installing the ten meter fence near the city while they evacuated the suburbs. As people were dying. So they blocked off the center of the city and those neighborhoods, then put up the electric barrier. The infrastructure was already in place. The poles installed, just waiting."

“Hey! Adrian, get back here,” she shouted. The boy had kept walking when the rest of the kids stopped to look at the poles. He turned and began walking back.

Suddenly they heard the sounds of a helicopter. “Down!” Fernando yelled, and the kids all rushed in to the dry bushes and laid flat on the ground.

When the helicopter had flown over they continued down the bank. Will was thinking about what Silvia had said. It didn’t make sense to him. Part of him thought Fernando was right, the girl just believed in conspiracies because that’s how her father had raised her. But the river obviously was not contaminated, so someone was lying about that. And...his own sister didn’t believe what Will told her. He didn’t want to judge this girl that way.

“Look,” Jason was pointing far ahead, where the bridge crossed over the river. It was the place where Will had scaled the fence and jumped into the water.

There were three trucks and several men standing around the bridge, working on the fence. The kids all went back into the bushes.

“Let’s get closer until we can see what they’re doing,” Fernando said. “But stay hidden.”

“I know what they’re doing,” Will heard Silvia say under her breath.

They stayed between the hedgerow and the fence, crouched over with Fernando leading them closer to the bridge, until he dropped under the bushes and crawled on his stomach. The others joined him, and they could see the men on the bridge now.

“They’re extending the fence higher,” Silvia said. “They never had to before because everyone was too afraid to go near the river. But since Randy scaled it, they decided to make sure no one else can. And look.” She was pointing to the right side of the bridge.

The kids looked where she was pointing. They were installing the tall poles. “On both sides of the bridge,” Silvia said, looking to her left.

“The security barrier,” Will said. “They want to make sure no one else can get in.”

“Did you hear anything I said?” Silvia asked derisively. “They don’t give a shit about people getting in. They want to make sure no one can get out. The river is the only real weak spot. That’s why they lied about it being so contaminated and why they put the fence and barrier all along it. I guess once you scaled the fence, they realized they needed to improve security. Now why would they do that if the river was so contaminated that anyone near it was going to die?”

Will didn’t have an answer. He was looking at the men on the bridge. “Those guards,” Will said. On both sides of the bridge were several men with laser rifles. “They aren’t regular military.” They were dressed in black from head to toe, no insignia on their uniforms. “I didn’t see any of them at the base. Everyone at the base was regular military.” 

“Strange huh?” Silvia asked. “These are the people who patrol the barrier. They’re all dressed like that.”

Will looked at the men, remembering where he had seen these uniforms before. They were exactly how the soldiers with Hastings were dressed when they went to the Amber planet to find Will and Judy. He didn’t know what was going on, but he was starting to think Silvia was on to something.

Then he looked at the river where the fence was underwater. “Does the fence go all the way to the bottom?” Will asked.

“Who knows?” Fernando said. “No reason to find out. Water’s three meters deep or so, but like we said, nothing out there for us. We’ve been pretty safe since we left downtown.” Then he said, “Let’s get out of here.” The kids crouched and began making their way back down the hedgerow the way they had come.

It started raining before they were back to their room beneath the bridge. “I don’t think this is going to let up for a long time,” Fernando said to Will. “You might as well stay another day, Randy.”

Will looked at Silvia, but she didn’t say anything or even look at them. “OK, if no one cares,” he said. Silvia still didn’t say anything.

In the end, Will stayed another three weeks with the kids. He enjoyed his time with them. It was the first time he had ever been around kids his age for that long, who seemed happy to have him there. Even Silvia stopped treating him like he was the enemy, though she was never really friendly with him. Her brother, Adrian, on the other hand, worshiped Will. He slept next to him every night, and was never far from him when they wandered down the river banks during the day.

They lived on fish and some canned goods that the kids had collected before they left the city. They showed Will that they had tried to grow vegetables along the hedgerow, but they were never successful. The sun was never able to break through the polluted, orange haze enough to make it possible to have a garden.

“Do you think there are any stores left with food?” Will asked them one day, when he saw how low their canned goods were becoming. They kept them in a locker in the corner of the maintenance room. “It’s such a big area.”

“Probably not,” Tre said. “The people who didn’t die the first few days started hording. And we could see military trucks from our fire escape, taking everything they could.”

"That's your government taking care of you," Silvia said. 

As Will looked at their dwindling supply of food, he realized the last thing they needed was another mouth to feed. “I’m going to leave tomorrow. I never intended to stay this long.”

“No!” Adrian said.

“Adrian, I need to. I was headed downtown when you guys found me. I want to see what’s going on down there.”

He looked at Silvia, sure she would be happy about his announcement, but she just averted her eyes. Will thought it was strange. When he first got here, he assumed the girl and Fernando were together, but he realized now they were just friends. 

“Randy, you’re welcome to stay with us as long as you want,” Fernando said. The others all readily agreed with him. Silvia still remained silent. They were sitting around on the cots eating fish with canned corn.

“Thanks everyone, but I need to leave. It’s time.”

“Well, we’ll walk with you tomorrow until we’re close to the city,” Fernando said. “We’ll show you how to get from the river to downtown. It’s a storm drain that will come up in the middle of an industrial area and you’ll have a few kilometers after that to walk. And look, we can’t keep you from it, but we hope you don’t tell them about us. Or the river. As long as they think its contaminated, we’re safe here.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna say anything about you guys,” Will said.

It took them three hours to make their way up the river bank toward the city. The river ran north and south, then jogged back west, then turned north again. They had seen no signs of life as they walked. Everything was quiet. No cars in the distance or planes or helicopters going over.

“Here,” Fernando said. They stopped and climbed up the bank a couple meters and Will saw there was a round opening, lined with aluminum. He peered inside.

“It should be dry all the way,” Fernando said. “Hasn’t rained in a few days. You can make it just bending over. Take you fifteen minutes or so then you’ll be in the industrial area. When you come out, look for Fourth Street, take that to get to the center of downtown. I don’t know what to tell you once you get there, except to be careful. I’m still not sure why you’re doing this.”

“You guys have been really nice to me, but I have to see this for myself. I don’t know what’s going on, but it seems like what they are telling us definitely isn’t the whole story.”

They all gave Will a hug, except for Silvia. Adrian held on to him for a long time. “Are you going to come back, Randy?” The little boy asked. He sounded ready to cry.

“I don’t know Adrian, maybe, if I can. Listen to your sister though, OK. She loves you so much. She won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

When he let the boy go, Silvia was standing a little way from him. She didn’t act like she was going to hug him so Will just said, “Thanks Silvia. Sorry if I was any trouble.”

She took a backpack off her shoulder and handed it to him. “There are some MREs from my dad’s stash in there. Figured they would be easier to carry than cans. I don’t know what they’re eating down here now, but I would stash them somewhere before you get downtown. They could keep you alive in an emergency. Couple other things in there too.”

“But…”

“Fucking take them, Randy.” She turned away from him.

“Thanks,” Will said. He still couldn’t figure this girl out.

He headed on up the river alone, the others watching him walk away. Will turned one time and waved. They all waved back except for Silvia, who stood with her arm around her little brother.


	24. Chapter 24

Will had come out of the storm drain and walked along 4th Street between warehouses and small abandoned industrial businesses. He had no idea what he was going to do once he got downtown or what he was looking for, but he had no plans other than to disappear from his past. He found that, regardless of the warning from the kids on the river, he wasn’t afraid. When he first went to space as an eleven year old boy, he was frightened of everything. Now he wasn’t much older at fourteen, but he had seen a lot, and he was more excited to discover new things than he was frightened of them. He recognized the irony in that he had to come back to earth to find that out about himself.

A light rain started to fall. Will had always loved the rain, but this was different. The thick orange air just made it dirty. But he didn’t try to find a place to get out of it, he just walked on, looking for any signs of life.

By the time Will made it downtown, the rain was steady, covering him with an orange slime. Will opened his backpack and discovered a windbreaker with a hood that Silvia had put in it. Such a strange girl, Will thought.

There were still no signs of life at all. The windows in every food store had been smashed in. When he came to one, he would go inside, then wander around, but the only food left was molded or rotten. There were no can goods or anything that was nonperishable. The river kids had been right about that.

With the heavy, orange air, it got dark early, and by 14:00 visibility was getting even more difficult. He decided to find a shop or office building and spend the night, then explore some more the next day before deciding what he was going to do.

He was on Figueroa Street in the Financial District, looking up at the skyscrapers, when he thought he saw a light in a window near the top of one of the buildings. It was flickering, so Will knew it was a lantern or candle or some other flame, but it went out almost as quickly as he saw it.

He began to cross the street to enter the building, when a door was pushed open and two kids walked out. They were teens, a boy and a girl, probably a year or two older than he was. He froze on the sidewalk, and they did the same beside the door they had just walked out of.

“Hey!” The boy yelled. The two of them started walking toward him. They both carried sticks or metal poles it looked like.

“Run!” Will looked behind him but didn’t see who had yelled at him. There was a department store behind him with a broken plate glass window. He thought the voice had come from inside it somewhere, but he couldn’t see anyone.

He turned back to the two kids walking toward him, their pace now quickened. He put his hands up and out to show he had no weapons. “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” he said.

The two teenagers started walking quicker. He remembered something Penny told him back on Alpha Centauri, “You’re constantly walking toward things that you need to be running away from.” When he laughed she had admitted she stole the line from a Shirley Jackson book. Now he wondered if he needed to be running away from these two kids.

When the teenagers were in the center of the wide street, Will heard something to his left, and two small children were running down the street toward them. The teenagers turned and the boy was pelted in the face with a rock and grabbed his nose. The girl turned and ducked her head as more rocks flew at her.

Then Will felt a tug on the back of his jacket and a boy about his age was standing there. “Run!” He yelled. The boy pulled Will around, turning him back toward the department store. Will watched the boy leap through the broken window. He ran after the boy, jumping over the broken glass at the bottom, following the kid into the store. He heard breaking glass behind him and knew the teens in the road must have come through the widow and were chasing them.

“Hey!” One of them yelled, and Will knew he had been spotted. He jumped behind a shoe rack and looked back. He saw the boy who had been in the road, his head bleeding from where the rock had hit him. Next to him was the girl, but they had been joined by two other boys. All of them carried metal poles with sharpened ends. Will couldn’t see where the boy had gone that he was following. He looked toward the back of the store, thinking there must be a rear door.

“Hey,” someone whispered. Will looked around and saw the boy behind another shoe rack an aisle over. He was peering at Will between boxes of shoes. “I’m going to run. You follow me, and don’t stop and don’t look behind you or they’ll catch you.”

“OK,” Will whispered back.

The boy held up three fingers. Then dropped one, then another, and when he dropped the third finger he sprang up and into the aisle. Will followed him. The boy didn’t run toward the back of the store. He ran toward the side.

“There he is!” He heard one of their pursers shout.

Will saw the boy he was following run through the changing rooms. Will thought they were trapped now, but he had no choice but to trust the kid or give himself up. He ran into the room then down a short hall, with booths on each side. The kid was standing in front of one, motioning quickly for Will. Will ran into the small booth and saw there was a hole in the back wall. He climbed through the hole, the boy following him now. They were in a storage room. He stopped and the kid ran in front of him. “Come on!” the boy whispered, and Will ran behind him between stacks of boxes and clothes hanging from racks.

Will followed the boy to the back of the room, where they came to an emergency exit door. The boy waited, listened carefully, then pushed the door open slowly and looked out. “Come on,” he whispered. Will followed him.

They were in an alley. The kid looked both ways, then started running, Will on his heels.

They didn’t stop and they didn’t talk, they just kept running. Will followed the kid down the alley, then across two other streets, and down another alley. It was hard for him to breath in the thick air, but this kid seemed to be in excellent shape, or he was used it. But as Will ran behind him, he noticed how skinny the kid was. He had jeans and a t-shirt on, and his clothes were wet from the dirty rain and sticking to him. Will could see his ribs under the shirt.

They ran down another street, the kid slowed to a walk, then turned into a side door of an old building. It looked like it housed apartments. They were out of the Financial District, and the buildings here were not the shiny fifty and sixty story skyscrapers. This old building was maybe twelve stories high.

The kid still didn’t talk to him. He walked into a wide lobby, turned beside a counter, pushed a door open and walked down a staircase. At the bottom, the kid pulled a flashlight out of his backpack and turned it on. “You have a light?” The kid asked.

“I don’t know.” Will pulled the backpack off and searched around and found that Silvia had put a flashlight at the bottom. He brought it out and turned it on. “I guess I do.”

“How the fuck are you still alive?” The kid asked.

“Good question,” Will said. If he only knew, he thought. He followed the boy down a short hall, then into a side room. Will shined his light all around. There was a bar on one side and small tables throughout. The room looked to be undamaged. There were even full bottles of liquor behind the bar. It was decorated in very old decor.

“Used to be a hidden speakeasy back during prohibition,” The kid said. “They refurbished twenty years ago or so. There was a whole speakeasy trend. All legal by then of course, but I guess they thought it was cool, drinking in these old places.”

They walked across the room, and the kid pushed another door open, and Will saw they were in a narrow, dirty tunnel.

Will shined his light around as they walked. There were old faded murals on the walls of the tunnel. “What is this?” Will asked, shining the light on the mural that covered the wall.

“The map,” The kid answered.

“Map?” But the boy didn’t respond.

They walked down the old tunnel for about thirty minutes in silence, Will shining his flashlight along the walls, fascinated at the art work.

Finally the kid stopped and held up his hand for Will to wait. The boy shined his light further down the hall and whistled. A light blinked off and on down in the dark tunnel and the boy started walking again, Will following.

After a couple more minutes, a light came on in front of them, and there was a boy and girl standing in the tunnel, the girl holding a battery powered lamp.

“Who’s this?” The boy asked, looking at Will suspiciously.

“I don’t know,” he turned to Will. “Who are you?” The kid had saved him from the kids on the street, and led him down this tunnel without ever stopping to ask who he was or why he was here.

“Randy. Randy Carter,” Will replied.

“Randy Carter,” the boy told the other two.

“You picked up a stray,” The boy said. Will saw he didn’t seem happy about it.

“Yep. Eloi almost had him. I figured if he was their enemy he might be a friend of ours.”

“I’m not their enemy. I don’t even know who they are.”

All three kids looked at him, “Where the hell did you come from?” The girl asked.

“My mom worked at the base, and I left. I came here to see what was going on.”

“How did you get inside the barrier?” The boy with the lantern asked him.

“I drove a chariot through the fence.”

“How did you not die?” The girl asked him.

“Well, it was an accident. I didn’t know about the electric barrier. But the Chariot protected me. I wrecked it and took off running.”

“What do you mean you didn’t know about the electric barrier? Where are you from?” The girl asked.

“Back East.”

“Enough questions,” The boy who had helped him said. “We’ll let Tom figure it out.” He walked on down the tunnel and Will followed. It looked like the boy and girl were going to stay behind.

The tunnel turned to the right, and the boy pushed open a door and they were in another old barroom, decorated like the first had been. The boy crossed the room and walked up a flight of stairs, then turned down a hall. He pushed open another door and they were standing in an old ball room. There were maybe thirty kids in the room. The youngest were maybe seven or eight, and the oldest not over seventeen or eighteen. They all looked up as the two walked in.

Several of the older teens stood and walked toward them. Will looked around the room. The kids were lying on old mattresses, some of them seated in padded chairs. Most of them had clubs or sticks near them. The teens that were approaching them had all armed themselves before walking across the wide room.

“Who are you?” One of the kids asked. He might have been sixteen or seventeen, Tall, and possibly athletic at one time, as Will could see the muscles in his arms. But he was skinny now, as were the kids with him and the ones around the room.

“Randy Carter,” Will said.

“Randolph Carter?” The boy asked him, with a sly smile.

Will smiled back. “Yeah.”

“Whatever, man.” The boy replied, still smiling at him. “So…?”

Will told the same story he had told the other kids. The boy looked at the kid who had helped Will. “So you thought it would be a good idea to help him out Mike?”

“Yeah I did. Unless you want to be them.”

“No, I don’t want to be them. But it’s another mouth.”

“Wait, I have some food,” Will said. “Not much, but you can have it.” He noticed the kids around the room were even more attentive now. He pulled the backpack off and sat it on the floor and pulled out several packages of the military rations that Silvia had put in it.

“We’ll split it up and share it,” the boy said. One of the kids with him gathered the packages in his arms. “Make sure the little ones get fed first. And _Randy_ here, It’s his food.”

Will noticed he said his name with sarcasm. “No, take it. Really. What’s your name?”

“I’m Tom Culp,” The boy said. “This idiot’s my brother, Mike.” He nodded at the boy who had helped Will.

“Thanks, Mike,” Will said. The door opened and a boy and girl walked in. Both of them were around twelve or thirteen.

“I thought they might have caught you,” Mike said as the two walked up to them.

“Didn’t even try to follow us. They were looking for him,” the girl answered, looking at Will.

“Thanks for helping me,” Will told the two of them.

“So, who are you, and what were you doing wandering around the streets like you’re taking a summer stroll?” The boy asked. Maybe he was older than he looked, Will thought.

Will told the same story over again. “He gave us his food,” Mike said. Will thought he was justifying helping him.

“So, what’s going on?” Will asked.

“Let’s walk,” Tom said, and turned toward the door they had just come through. Mike followed him and Will went with them.

Once in the hall, Tom walked backed down the stairs until they were in the little bar they had come through. He pulled up a chair at one of the tables and Will and Mike sat down with him. There was a line of small windows near the top, giving them enough light to see. This whole area was below street level.

“So who are you, really?” Tom asked.

“I told you. I was at the base. My mom works on the Alpha program, but I decided to leave.”

“You were on the Resolute, weren’t you?” Tom said.

Mike looked at his brother, surprised.

“Why do you think that?” Will asked.

“Because you have no idea what is going on here. If so, you wouldn’t be wandering around down here. You don’t even have HAZMAT gear. So my guess is you’ve been gone. You say back East, but everyone knows about the terrorist attack, even back East. I can’t believe you would risk your life coming down here if you had heard anything about the virus. You know people rotted from the insides out? Their internal organs turned to mush. You would have heard about that, and you wouldn’t have risked it. It’s the worst death you could imagine.”

Not really, Will thought, thinking of what the Haja had planned to do to him.

“And we both know the name is bullshit...Randy Carter.” He added.

“Yes. I was on the Resolute,” Will answered. “We left three years ago. My mom is a scientist on the Resolute project, but she’s not there. She’s still in space. My sister brought me back because she thinks I need help at the medical facility.”

“So, they just let you hitch a ride?” Tom asked. This was a smart kid, Will thought. He didn’t think he would be able to bullshit him forever.

“My mom is important to them,” Will said, hoping that would end the questions for a while.

“And you’re sticking with the name?” Tom asked.

“Yes.”

“And why did you leave the base? You say your sister is still there?”

“Yes. But…they think I’m crazy. And…I just got tired of all the questions. The tests. My sister doesn’t believe me either. I guess I just decided I was tired of everything. So I stole a Chariot and drove through the fence when they were chasing me. I didn’t know what was going on down here or I wouldn’t have come here.”

“And the Chariot protected you from the barrier? Because it’s a Faraday cage?”

Yeah he's smart, Will thought. "Well, I didn’t know about the barrier outside the fence. I guess I was lucky.”

“I guess,” Mike said. “Especially that Susan saw you wondering around like you were in a candy store or something. We followed you to see what you were doing until the Eloi saw you.”

“Eloi?” Will said. “Don’t tell me, you guys live underground. You’re the Morlocks?” Will looked at Tom.

“A Well’s fan huh?” Tom asked.

“Yeah, me and my sister both. Not the one at the base, the one we left in space.”

The kids heard the emotion in his voice.

“So, what happened?” Will asked. “With the other kids?”

“Food,” Mike said.

“It always comes down to food,” Tom said. “There isn’t enough. The stores were raided and emptied out by the adults when it first started. It was bad. Dog eat dog. Hoarding everything they could find. Didn’t matter because they started dying, and a lot of the kids survived. So it’s sort of been a scavenger hunt since then. Looking through apartments and basements and wherever we thought they stored the food.

“But like everything else. I don’t care what they say, the meek don’t inherit anything. A guy name Billy Spears decided there were too many mouths to feed and started eliminating the weaker ones. So we gathered some of the kids together and went underground. What you saw is what we have left. Thirty three of us. There’s about a hundred forty of the Eloi up top. None of us come out until night, then scavenge for food. But you can tell by looking at us, we aren’t finding much.”

“How did you know about these underground places?” Will asked.

“Our dad was a history professor at UCLA,” Mike said. “He loved Southern Cal history. He knew all about the old speakeasies from the depression era. Tunnels run all over downtown. Bootlegger tunnels. You can move around pretty much all over the city without ever seeing the daylight if you know how. Remember the first tunnel we came down and all the murals?”

“Yeah,” Will answered. “You said it was a map.”

“It is,” Tom said. “Those murals were in the tunnel leading from the speakeasy under the old King Edward Hotel. That’s the apartment building now that Mike took you to. The murals are a secret map, showing the tunnels all over downtown. Our dad has been bringing us down here since grade school, reading the map and following the tunnels. This was practically our backyard.”

“So, you only go out at night because of the other kids. The Eloi?” Will asked.

“No, I told you they only go out at night too. It’s to keep from getting shot.”

“By who?” Will asked.

“The military, or whoever. They started dropping food off in helicopters about a year ago. The adults were dead, and we thought they were trying to help us. They didn’t let us out because they thought we were still contaminated, but we’re kids, so we figured they were at least going to feed us. They would show up over Pershing Square and drop off care packages. Once a month. Then one day we showed up for our feeding, and they opened fire. Killed probably seventy five percent of the kids that had survived the virus.”

Will faced showed his shock at what the boy said.

“It worked great, like the modern buffalo hunts that weren’t really hunts. They wanted to cull the herd. We were the herd. Just a bunch of bison, following a feed truck, waiting for our hay until the day they opened fire.”

“Jesus,” Will said. “Why did they do that? Do you think this whole thing was planned?”

“Planned? What do you mean?” Mike asked.

“The virus. All of it?” He was thinking of what Silvia had told him.

“No,” Tom said. “But I think they made the decision they needed to wipe us out to keep us from escaping and contaminating everyone on the outside.”

“You think you’re contagious?” Will asked.

“Probably. We’ve been here since it happened. We were with our parents downtown…” He looked at Mike and didn’t finish. “Anyway. We were here when it happened. We were just some of the lucky few who didn’t have symptoms. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t contagious. Which means you probably are too. If you start coughing in a few days…goodbye.”

Will wasn’t concerned. He’d been around the river kids for three weeks. “So what are you going to do?” Will asked.

“Try to stay alive,” Tom said.


	25. Chapter 25

“We’re going to have to start eating those if we can’t find anything,” Mike said. Will was walking with Mike and Tom down one of the tunnels that came out beneath an old movie theater, when several rats scurried away in front of them.

They scavenged every night for food. Tom was methodical about it; keeping a notebook with every building and every apartment or store they had been to. “Can’t afford to waste our energy going to the same places over and over again,” he explained. But things were getting scarce. Will had been with them almost three weeks, and they had only found three apartments with enough food to sustain all of the kids for a few days at a time.

And sometimes they didn’t even take the food with them. Will had been with Tom one night canvassing a building and found an apartment with boxes of canned goods. He stuck his head out the door and yelled for Tom, who was in an apartment down the hall.

Tom walked in and looked at the boxes and took out his ledger. “Leave it,” he said.

“Leave it? Why?” Will asked.

Tom had walked over and opened one of the boxes. “Hey, let me know what’s in it and I will document it.” He was writing the address in his ledger.

“But why? We can carry some and come back with the others for the rest.”

“Always safer to keep stuff in different places in case Billy…the Eloi…find our stuff. I leave some where we find it, so we’ll always have food stashed away.”

Now they walked up a narrow flight of stairs and opened an old wooden door and they were standing in the lobby of the old movie theater. There was a square counter in the center with a popcorn machine and a long soda fountain. There was a wide staircase leading up to a balcony. Everything was in gold décor with red carpet and curtains.

“Hey, I’ve been here,” Will said. “My dad brought me and my sister when we were little.”

“On a trip from back East?” Tom asked, sarcastically.

“Yeah, I guess,” Will said. “I barely remember it.” But he did remember something, else. He remembered his dad telling him the problem with lying is you have to remember your lies. He was forgetting his, and Tom was too smart for that. 

“This was one of the old movie palaces, built during the depression.” Tom said. “It was the center of the universe for kids back before TV. Friday nights and Saturday mornings. Our dad knew every one of these places. He liked the old ones out in the suburbs better. The neighborhood movie houses. A lot smaller than these downtown.”

“Hey,” Mike was standing by the glass doors, looking out. Tom and Will walked over and stood beside him. “The Eloi,” he said.

There were maybe twenty of them, walking down the center of the street. They had seen them several times since Will had been with the kids, but normally they were far enough away that they didn’t worry about them and there was seldom this many in one group.

“They’re looking bad,” Tom said. “Way more to feed than we have. They’re going to turn on each other pretty soon.”

“Then what?” Will asked.

“We don’t know. We’re going to stay away from them though. We don’t want to find out.”

“Wait. What are you saying?” Will asked.

“They’ve been eating rats the last few months,” Mike said. “But it’s hard to catch enough rats to feed that many. We keep wondering what the next step is going to be.”

“But, you guys need to get out of here!” Will said. “It’s like everyone I meet just acts like you’re going to live out the rest of your lives like this.”

“Who else have you met?” Tom asked.

“No one. I mean, you guys and them, I guess.”

“Come on, we need to show you something.” Tom walked back through the lobby and back downstairs and into the tunnel. They followed him to the end. When they came out to a street, Will saw they were no longer in the downtown area. They walked a few blocks, then Tom pointed to an empty freeway in front of them. The tall chain link fence with the barbed wire ran along the top of it. “That’s the 101, he said. It runs into the 10, and the 110. Basically circles the entire downtown area. That’s the zone we’re in. It used to be further out. All the way to the 105 in the South and the 710 in the East. There’re tightening the noose.”

“What?” Will said. “Why?”

“They don’t want any of us to survive. To take this virus or whatever it is out to the suburbs. The electric barrier runs along the outside. And just past that, a silent alarm. Some kids used to escape, back when the electric barrier had just gone up and there were some issues with it. But we would hear helicopters a little while after and then the laser fire. We finally figured there is a sensor line outside the electric barrier, sending them a signal if anyone crosses it. But they are afraid to come down here too, so at least we survive. The issue is food. But believe me, If there was a way out of here, we would find it.”

Will stared up at the highway, looking at the poles with the red electric barrier components at the top, all spaced about fifty meters apart. “When did they put the poles up?”

“Maybe three years ago or so,” Tom answered. “They were doing construction along the highway for a long time. I remember because our dad always bitched about them. Said it was a waste of taxpayer money, since the old ones weren’t bad.”

“Old ones? Weren’t they for the 8G?” Will asked.

“No, my dad wouldn’t have complained about that,” Tom answered. “They ran 8G through the neighborhoods, not along the freeway. These were just replacement light poles. Ended up using them for the electric barrier fence instead. You see the old light poles are still there.”

Will did see that. And he saw they were almost twice as far apart as the poles being used for the barrier. Will thought about what Silvia had told him. Someone put these poles up for an electric barrier a year before the virus. They planned it. He started to say something to the brothers, but decided against it.

“Let’s go,” Tom said. He turned and they walked back toward the building where they had exited the tunnel. Tom held the door open and Will and Mike walked in. But Tom stopped.

Will and Mike looked back at him to see why he didn’t follow them in, but he pushed the door shut, then turned and ran.

Will started to go back out the door, but Mike grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the floor. They looked up to see four kids run past, chasing Tom.

“They must have walked around the corner and saw Tom before he got inside! He’s leading them away from the tunnel!” Mike said.

“We have to help him!” Will yelled.

“Of course we do, he’s my brother. But we plan for this. Come on.” He turned and ran back to the door they had come through and down the stairs back into the tunnel, Will running behind him.

Mike led with his flashlight shining down the dark passageway.

“He’ll lose them and meet us at the next entrance,” Mike explained. “We always know where to go if they see us. We never go back into the tunnel we just came from. We’re on our own on the street, and have to lose them before the next entrance. It’s the only way to keep the kids safe.”

They jogged down the tunnel as quickly as they could, but it was one that hadn’t been kept up and they had to crawl over a lot of junk that had been left down there for many years.

Finally, Mike led them into a boiler room. “This is under a hotel,” He explained. “Tunnel comes out in a storage room.”

A few minutes later they climbed a flight of steps, and Mike pushed a door open and they were in a cluttered basement. Mike quickly hurried over to the far wall and climbed up on a chair and looked out a small window. He didn’t see anyone on the street.

“Come on,” he said and led Will to the back of the room. He pushed another door open, then there was a short flight of stone steps leading up to a metal door. He ran up the steps, then listened at the door.

He was looking back at Will. “I don’t hear anything,” he said. “I’m going to check.” He pushed the door open a crack and walked on out on the dark street. Will followed him.

They looked both ways, but there was no sign of Tom. They walked to the end of the block and peaked around the corner. “Shit,” Mike said. He rounded the corner, Will behind him.

The metal rod that Tom carried for protection was lying on the street.

“You think they caught him?” Will asked.

“Let’s look around some,” Mike answered. They ran up and down the streets and alleys near the building they had come out of, but there was no sign of Tom.

“Let’s head back and see if he made it back to the kids,” Mike said. Will heard the fear in his voice and was sure they wouldn’t find him there.

There were always two guards posted in the tunnel like the day Will had first come here. When Mike flashed his light, the lantern came on. “Did Tom come back?” Mike asked as they approached the two kids with the lantern.

“No, did you lose him?” The girl asked.

“They Eloi saw us, and he led them away,” Mike said.

“What are we going to do?” The girl asked.

“I don’t know yet. Stay here, I’ll gather the guys and we’ll come out here and talk about it, so the little ones won’t know. Be right back, Randy.”

Will stayed with the two guards.


	26. Chapter 26

Several of the older kids walked out into the hall. Mike told them what happened.

“We’re fucked,” One of the boys said. “We need to move.”

“We have to get Tom back,” Mike said.

They began arguing until a teenage girl stuck her head into the hall. “Hey, the kids can hear.”

They quieted down, but they kept arguing. Most of them wanted to move as quickly as possible.

“Where are we going to go?” Mike said. “We’ve been safe because of the tunnels.”

“Yeah, but they're gonna find the tunnels,” one of the other kids said. “You know what they’ll do to him.”

“What?” Will asked.

“Torture him,” Someone said. “Until he talks and tells them where the tunnel is.”

“How do you know?” Will asked.

“Randy, you just got here, we know them, you don’t.”

They started arguing again.

“Who have they tortured?” They ignored him so Will raised his voice, “Hey! Who have they tortured?”

They all just looked at him. “Randy,” one of the girls said. “We have heard…they’ve eaten the ones that died.”

Will just looked at her. “Eaten them? Do you know this?”

They just stared back at him. “So has anyone just talked to them?” He asked.

“You can’t talk to them,” Mike said. “Look what they did when they saw you.”

“I’ll talk to them,” Will said.

“You’re crazy,” It was the girl who was holding the lantern.

“Yeah, a lot of people think that. So I guess I should be the one to do it.”

“You’re just going to walk up and talk to them?” The girl asked.

“Why not?”

“Because they’ll kill you,” A boy answered.

“Who have they killed?” Will asked. No one answered. “You can’t tell me who they killed, who they tortured, and who they have cannibalized? OK, I’ll take the risk. I’m going to go talk to them.”

He turned and started down the tunnel.

“Hey, wait up,” Mike caught up with him. “I’m going with you.”

“No you should stay. If Tom doesn't come back they’re gonna need you.”

“Tom’s my brother, so I’m not letting you do this by yourself Randy.”

“Yeah, but remember, I’m crazy.”

They walked through the tunnels until they came out of the building where they had first led Will. They stood together by the open door of an abandoned store. They were looking toward the tall building where Will had seen the light his first day here. “You sure about this?” Mike asked him.

“Yeah. But I think you should stay here,” Will said.

“Nope.”

“Then let’s do this,” Will started across the street.

When they were in the middle of the road, four kids walked out of the front of the building, all of them carrying weapons of some kind. They were skinny and dirty and ragged. They were trying to look tough Will saw, but they just looked like hungry kids to him.

The one who looked to be older than the others stepped up to them, blocking their way. “Are you guys crazy?” He asked.

“He is,” Mike said, pointing to Will.

“You guys have Tom,” Will said. “We want him back.”

“That’s easy, just give us your food,” The boy said.

“Food?” Mike said. “We just have what we find, same as you.”

“That’s bullshit. You have a stash. Everyone knows it. We want it.”

“We don’t have…”

“Let us talk to Billy,” Will said.

“Why?” The kid asked.

“We want Tom, you want food. We get Tom back and you will get food.”

Mike looked at Will. Hell, maybe he really is crazy, he thought.

“Let’s take them, Nathan,” one of the other kids said. He was a little, skinny boy, probably nine or ten. “I’m hungry.”

Will smiled at him.

“He’s lying Joey,” Nathan said.

“So you going to kill us?” Will asked.

“Kill you? No.” Nathan almost sounded surprised.

“Well then let’s go see Billy,” Will said.

“Whatever,” Nathan answered. He turned and walked toward the office building. Will and Mike followed him; the other kids stepped in behind them.

They walked up the staircase to the fifteenth floor. Halfway up, Mike, breathing hard, said, “Anyone tell Billy there are a lot of floors that are just as good on the lower level?”

“We tried,” Nathan’s voice was raspy.

Will wondered why Billy made the kids climb so high every day, with the air quality as bad as it was. Breathing was hard enough just standing still in this air.

When they walked out of the staircase on the fifteenth floor, they all stopped to get their breath. Then Nathan started walking again and they followed him. They started passing kids walking up and down the halls. They all looked the same: skinny, dirty, hallowed eyes. One of them walked in a door and Will saw a bunch of other kids inside. They just seemed to be sitting around, doing nothing.

Finally, Mike led them to a double door halfway down the hall. He pushed the doors open and there were more kids inside. There were maybe twenty boys and girls, most of them older teens. They looked the same as the other kids Will had seen.

At the end of the room was a glass enclosed office. Inside was a table with two girls and four boys sitting around. Tom was one of them. They were playing cards. Nathan led them over to the room and pushed the door open and they went inside.

The kids looked up. Tom smiled and said, “Hey Mike, hey Randy.” The other kids had gone back to playing cards.

“What’s going on?” Mike asked.

“Poker. Knock Poker,” The boy that spoke was skinny, even compared to the other kids they had seen. He had thick glasses with black rims and his face was covered in pimples.

“So you’re not dead,” Will said, looking at Tom.

“Good observation,” The boy with the glasses said. “You were right Tom; this is the bright one.”

“You’re still a smart ass, Billy,” Tom grinned at him.

“Draw,” The kid replied.

Tom drew a card, said, “Fuck me,” and discarded another one. “Where’s my King?”

A couple of the other kids laughed.

“So, why don’t we leave?” Will asked. “I mean, if they’re not going to kill you and stuff.”

“They seem to think we have a big stash of food somewhere,” Tom answered. “They think if they keep me I’ll get just as hungry as they are, and eventually lead them to it.”

“I’m guessing they aren’t going to eat you either,” Will gave Mike a sarcastic look. The boy just shrugged at him.

“Eat him? His skinny ass?” It was one of the girls sitting at the table with them. The others all laughed.

“I don’t think so,” Tom said, “Billy, you going to eat me?”

“Not yet. Never know what happens we get hungry enough.” The boy drew a card and discarded.

“So, you intend to keep Tom here until we take you to the food stash?” Will asked Billy.

“Well, we really didn’t think it through,” Billy said. “A few of the guys just walked around the corner and Tom was standing there, so they dragged him back here. We figured we’d hang on to him and see if he gets bored enough or hungry enough to tell us where the stash is.”

“There’s no stash!” Mike argued.

“I tried that approach,” Tom said.

“What if I brought you food?” Will asked. “Enough to feed everyone?”

Now they all stopped playing cards and looked up at him. “We have a hundred and forty two kids here,” Billy said. Now he sounded serious. “There were over four hundred of us after they killed all of them in the square. We lose one or two a month. They get hungry and sick and die or sometimes they just wander off.” Will thought about the girl he had seen inside the barrier on their first trip back. “But we still have a hundred forty two. And you got what...thirty, Tom?”

“A few more,” he said.

“So where are you going to find enough food to feed almost two hundred kids?” Billy asked.

“I don’t know if I can,” Will responded. “But if I tell you I’ll try, will you let me go?”

“Let you go?” Billy said. “We didn’t bring you here. We sure don’t need another mouth to feed. We don’t care where you go.”

“But when you guys first saw me you chased me,” Will said.

“Well you ran.”

“Because you chased me.”

“Because you ran.”

“Guys,” Tom interrupted. “Let’s get back to the point at hand. Randy, how are you going to get food?”

“Wait a minute. I have a question first,” Will said. “You said these guys are killing everyone. Told me to run when they first saw me. The kids think they are cannibals.”

“That’s what I heard too,” Mike said.

“Hey,” Billy said, looking at the others around the table. “Can we have the room for a few?”

The others all stood up and laid their cards on the table and walked out, leaving Tom, Billy, Mike and Will.

“Well, we might have exaggerated a little,” Tom said. “Billy and I have been friends since second grade.”

“I know that!” Mike said, “But you told me he went crazy!”

“Like he said,” Billy answered, looking at Will. “It was a slight exaggeration. Things were nuts here after this all happened. The kids watched their families die...die horribly. And they were kind of walking around like zombies. It wasn’t any Lord of the Flies, that’s for sure. Yeah there was some shit that went down. But basically, the kids that survived were all in this together. And then the helicopters started dropping the food in the square, and it looked like things might be OK. But it wasn’t. They just wanted to kill off any survivors and make sure this virus didn’t get out. So when they killed all those kids in the square, it was too much. Their families had died. They watched their parents and brothers and sisters rot from the inside…anyway…then their own kind, the adults, opened fire on them from the helicopter. And the kids that survived were lost after that. They walked around like they were shell shocked. Six kids jumped off buildings the week after that happened."

Will had nothing to say. He was stunned.

“Tommy and I watched all this happen," Billy continued, "And we knew someone had to do something if anyone was going to survive this. They had to come together. The best way to do that was to have a common enemy. That was easy. Everyone on the outside was the enemy after the helicopter incident. But that turned out to not be good enough. Once they killed the kids in the square, they just kept things locked down tight. Probably waiting for us to just die. Pretty much ignored us. We needed an enemy closer to home. So Tommy and I had a falling out. We became the crazy people living in the tower, chasing you, killing you, hell I guess cannibalizing you now.”

He looked at Tom, “That’s a reach you evil bastard.”

He was grinning and Tom grinned back. “It was creative though,” Tom said.

“And you guys are living underground,” Billy continued, “Hiding food, keeping it from us. So at night we patrol, looking for your hideout, looking for the big food stash that we know you have. We tell stories about all the food. You listen to the kids talk, they list everything they know is in the stash. Lots of real food, but they're kids so they talk about cookies and candy too. Stacks of it, just waiting there for them like a pirate's treasure. All they have to do is find it, then everything will be better. Our war gave everyone something to think about other than dying. Other than watching their families die. Yeah, we still lose a few. But not like before. They have something to look forward to. And isn't that what makes us all human?"

Will was stunned. By the horror of what these kids had endured and by the brilliance of these two teenagers who were keeping them alive. “The Morlocks and the Eloi,” Will said.

“Yeah,” Billy said. “We were always Sci-Fi fans.”

“So you just split up everyone? Looks like Billy got stuck with a lot more mouths to feed,” Mike said.

“Sort of,” Tom said. “I got the healthier ones. It wasn’t really fair. But when I’m out scouting by myself, I’m looking for food for them too. I leave Billy messages in some places when I find something for them.”

“That’s why you made me leave the food in the apartment,” Will said.

“Yeah. Usually I only do that when I’m by myself and find the food, and no one knows. But they were hurting and when you found that, I knew I had to leave it for them. Pickings are getting slim.

“But about this food Randy? Is that the food you were talking about? From that apartment? That wouldn’t be enough to feed everyone for very long, of course they already have that anyway once I gave Billy the address.”

“No. But I might be able to get some,” Will replied. “I have an idea.”

“Where do we go?” Tom asked.

“No, I have to do it by myself.”

“Why?” Billy asked.

“Does it matter?” Will answered.

“Why would we trust you?”

“Does _that_ matter? We’ve already established you’re not killing me and you’re not eating me. And I came here on my own. Seems to me you have no reason not to trust me.”

“Seems to me you’re right,” Billy answered. “OK. Tom, you should stay to keep up appearances. Scrap our escape plan for you. Mike can watch the kids, can’t he?”

“Yeah. I can watch them,” Mike said. “A bunch of them want to leave. They think you’re torturing Tom to get him to tell you where we’re hiding. But I’ll tell them we made a deal and Randy thinks he can find food.”

Mike and Will walked out, and as the door closed, Will turned and looked at Tom and Billy, sitting at the table. They were grinning at each other. They were both sixteen, and they had been best friends most of their lives. They should be thinking about girls and sports and getting ready for college. Instead, they were doing everything they could to keep a bunch of kids alive. Kids they hadn’t even known until a couple years ago. And here they were playing cards and telling jokes like they were hanging out in one of their bedrooms somewhere out in the suburbs.

Will had two thoughts as the door slowly closed: There were heroes everywhere who no one will ever hear of, and someone had to pay for what happened here.


	27. Chapter 27

“Randy!”

Adrian had seen Will walking down the river bank. He was sitting with his sister, Silvia. They had lines in the river, trying to catch some of the small fish that were keeping the kids from having to use all of their stored food.

Adrian stood and ran toward Will. Silvia stood from the bank and for a second, Will thought he saw a smile on her face, but it quickly went away.

Adrian ran up and hugged Will. “Are you back to stay?” He asked.

“I don’t know, Adrian. I need to talk to the others.”

They walked up to Silvia. “Well, they didn’t kill you,” She said.

“I can’t tell if you’re disappointed or not,” Will responded. He grinned at her, but she didn’t return it.

“So, what are you doing back here, Randy?”

“I need to see everyone about something,” He said.

“Let’s go,” She pulled her line in, and Adrian did the same.

“So, they are playing this stupid game?” Silvia said. “Two boys playing army?”

They were all sitting around on cots in the small room under the bridge.

“It’s not stupid,” Will answered. “Actually, it’s pretty brilliant. They’re a bunch of kids, slowly starving to death. Their parents are dead. If they didn’t have this…fake war…they would be just sitting all day with nothing to do, nothing to look forward to. Just…waiting around to die.” His voice had grown quiet as he said the final sentence, and his eyes seemed to be distant.

Silvia heard the tone, and saw Will’s expression. He had endured something she realized. Something that had affected him deeply. Her father had been a POW for three years, and sometimes she would hear this same tone in his voice and see that look in his eyes. The thousand yard stare, they called it. At that moment she decided to be nicer to him.

“So what are you thinking?” Fernando asked him. “We don’t have enough food to help them. And we’re not getting much out of the river.”

“I have a plan,” Will said. “Maybe the beginnings of a plan.”

“What is it?” Tre asked.

“If you guys can help me, I want to see if I can get out under the river. The fence probably goes to the river bed. Both on this side of the bridge and the other. But the electrical barrier doesn’t run under the water and it doesn’t look like they electrified it in any other way. I think Silvia is right. that’s probably why it was so important that everyone think the river’s contaminated. But we could cut through it with bolt cutters. If we could open the fence under the water, we could come and go, and no one would ever know it.”

“Go where, Randy?” Silvia asked.

“I said come and go,” he answered. “Go get food and bring it back.”

“From where?” Fernando asked. “You said the army brings food to the people left in the neighborhoods on Saturday morning to keep them fed. If you’re thinking about stealing their food, I’m not down with that. They’re just surviving too.”

“I wouldn’t do that. But I know where there’s food.”

He told them his plan. They argued back and forth for a while. Fernando wasn’t sold on the idea, and neither were the twins. Tre was the only one all in. Silvia hadn’t said a word while the others argued. Finally, Fernando looked at her. “What do you think?” He asked the girl.

“I’m fucking in,” she said, surprising everyone. They looked at her. “I know you all think I’m crazy. I don’t care. They fucking planned this. They fucking did this. And I want to fucking pay them back for this.”

“Jesus, Silvia. Stop with the goddamn conspiracies,” Fernando said. “This is dangerous. We’ve managed to survive here. No one bothers us. If we get caught we’re dead. And even if we don’t, they might discover we’ve found a way out, then we don’t know what they will do. Don’t make your decision because you believe your own government murdered people.”

“What if they did?” Will asked. He told them about the food and the massacre in the square.

“They killed them?” Adrian had walked over and climbed up on the cot next to his sister as Will told the story. “They killed the kids?”

Silvia had her arm around her little brother, but the look on her face was one of horror mixed with fury.

“That doesn’t mean they planned this,” Fernando said. “They probably decided it wasn’t worth the risk that some of the kids would escape and contaminate the outside.”

“Jesus, Fernando,” Silvia said. “Wake the fuck up.”

They were all quiet for a while. Then Fernando looked at Will. “How would we cut the fence open if we did this? Just diving and coming back up over and over again?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. Do you still have my HAZMAT suit?” Will asked.

“Yeah, it’s in the cabinet.” Tre answered.

“I think I can turn it into a diving suit. Or a snorkeling suit I guess. I’m going to need some tubes and tape, and I will have to test it. But I think I can do it if I can get the helmet sealed.”

He moved to the middle of the floor and started sketching his idea on the concrete floor with a piece of chalk the kids used to leave each other messages when they left the room. The other kids gathering around to watch him. All except for Silvia who remained sitting on the cot.

“It might work,” Jason said.

They asked Will some questions.

As they spoke, Silvia stood up and walked over and looked down at the sketch. “We could do all that,” She said. “Or we could just walk out.”

They all looked up at her.

“Fernando, help me.” She walked over to the large metal storage cabinet where they kept their supplies. She started to push it away from the wall. Fernando helped her until the cabinet was pushed out a meter and they could see behind it. Silvia stood back.

The kids gathered around. There was a metal plate in the center of the concrete wall, two meters high and a meter wide. “What is it?” Will asked.

“This is not a maintenance room,” Silvia said. “It was an emergency exit for the old Boring Tunnel.”

“Space X?” Will asked.

“Yep,” Silvia said.

“What are you talking about?” Tre asked.

“Space X owned a company called Boring,” Will explained. “It could bore through the ground. Easier and cheaper than any other way of underground construction. They built a tunnel from the airport near Santa Monica…”

“Hawthorn Airport,” Silvia said.

“Yeah. It was just a test tunnel for a few years on Space X property near the airport. But they extended it to the stadium and planned to go to LAX and the port.”

“They planned to go to San Francisco,” Silvia corrected him. “They brought it out this way to the 105. The plan was to run along the 105 to the 5, then generally follow that North to San Fran. All underground. No traffic. Like a high speed monorail underground. But Space X ran of money when their Mars Colony failed. Closed the whole thing down and abandoned it. Had trouble with homeless people living down there for a long time, so they closed all the entrances with these steel plates. That’s been over ten years ago.”

“How do you know all this?” Fernando asked.

“My dad helped build the tunnels. It was his first job out of high school when they started the extensions. Had all these maps of the whole system. All the exits. This was as far East as the tunnel got. But I bet we can follow it back toward Hawthorn Airport where it started. That airport’s been abandoned for five or six years, but If we can find the exit there, we’ll be on the outside of the fence.”

“And that’s why you brought us here,” Fernando said. “And why you made us bring the torch.”

“Torch?” Will asked.

Jason opened one end of the cabinets. There was an oxyacetylene welder with tanks. “Silvia found it in a mechanic shop down in the warehouse district,” he said. “Said we might be able to cut our way through the fence if we needed to. But you weren’t thinking about the fence, were you Silvia?”

“Nope. I figured if we ever needed to get out, we could. Through the tunnel. Almost no one even knows about them anymore. I’m pretty sure these fuckers who put up the fences never thought about them. No need. They are all closed off.”

“Why didn’t you tell us, Silvia?” Fernando asked.

“No reason to. We were safe here.”

“But…”

“I knew we always had that option if we needed it. They are going to come in here some day and kill us all. I don’t care what you say. My dad said always have an exit strategy. That’s our exit strategy. but I didn’t want to…”

“You didn’t want to tell us. Why not?” Fernando was angry.

“We’re family Fernando. All of us. You guys are the only family Adrian and I have. We were safe here and I didn’t want to lose you guys.”

Tears had come to her eyes and she stopped talking and turned away. They knew she was embarrassed by her emotions. She was always so tough.

“Silvia,” Will said. “We need something else too. A couple of military uniforms. You know where we could get those?”

“There’s an Army Navy Surplus warehouse down in the industrial district that you walked through. On your way to downtown. My dad always bought stuff there. I’m sure it was ransacked when all this happened, but there are a ton of old uniforms. I would imagine there are some there.”

“Do you know how to use the torch?” Fernando asked her.

“Seriously?” Silvia answered.

  
  


The next day they all walked down to the warehouse district. They had talked about leaving Adrian back with Tre, but all the kids wanted to go, and Silvia knew it would be an adventure for her little brother. There was something to be said for what Will had told them. They had just been hanging out at the river for a long time, and they needed something else to occupy their minds. Besides, if it was as Will described, the kids downtown weren’t the danger to them they thought they were, and they weren’t going that far anyway.

They found two regular army uniforms. They weren’t exact matches for what the military wore now, but Will figured they were close enough. They also found two inflatable rafts that Will made them take, along with some long ropes. When they asked why, he said, “If it works, we don’t want to carry all that food downtown.”

The next day, they all waited up by the river except for Will and Fernando, while Silvia cut through the steel plate with the torch. They knew the fumes would fill the small room.

Once she made the final cut and the plate fell away, Fernando stepped up with a lantern and he and Will and Silvia peered into the tunnel.

It was round, and about five meters in diameter. There were two rails running down the middle, and two concrete runners along the sides. “They used electric cars,” Silvia explained. “They could carry hundreds of people in them, and there were some just made for one or two people. They could get up to two hundred fifty kilometers per hour.”

Will was looking all around.

“What are you thinking?” Fernando asked.

“I think it would work, if we can find an opening bigger than this.”

“This was just an emergency escape exit,” Silvia said. “The main above ground entrance was at the airport, outside the old Space X complex. I don’t know how they blocked it off. How big does it need to be?”

“Big enough for a Chariot,” Will said.

“So we can get out?” Adrian asked.

“Yep,” Silvia said. All of the kids were looking down the tunnel.

“Can we go?” Jason asked.

“And not come back?” His brother added. “Just leave?”

They looked around at each other, then Will said, “You guys have been surviving for two years. Barely. So I’m not going to tell you what to do. I think if you get out of here, get away from the city, you’ll be fine. Find people to help you. And I wouldn’t blame you. But there are two kids downtown who are our age. They’ve been best friends almost their entire lives. They’re smart. They could survive this on their own, I’m sure of it. But instead, they adopted almost two hundred kids who would probably die without them. So I can’t leave. I need your help I think, but if you want to leave, I don’t blame you, and I will do what I can alone.”

“But wouldn’t they leave too?” Jason asked.

“Well, that’s what I’m going to try to talk them into. But I have to think about that, first. I mean, they all believe the river is contaminated. When we were running around downtown, they wouldn’t go anywhere near it. I don’t know if I could get them to come down here. And if we walk a hundred seventy kids out of here, they might just kill all of them from what you’re telling me. If my plan works, we can make sure they aren’t going to starve to death first. Then maybe I can convince them to leave. But I have to figure out what we can do to make sure they don’t get killed. And maybe they are infected. They have to be tested. I know a doctor at the medical facility that was nice, but I don’t really trust her. I don’t really trust anyone.”

He paused. “Except you guys.” And as he said it, he realized it was true. In a short time they had become his family and he trusted them with his life. “So first things first. We need to get food.”

“You’re not doing this alone, Randy,” Silvia said.

“She’s right,” Fernando added.

“I’m in,” Tre said.

“Larry and I are in,” Jason said. “We were just thinking out loud.”

“I’m in!” Adrian said. “What are we doing?”

They all laughed, and Silvia reached over and grabbed her brother’s neck. Will watched the gesture and smiled, thinking of Judy touching him the same way so often. He grew sad. That was a different life, he thought to himself. He was only fourteen, but he had already lived several different lives, it seemed.


	28. Chapter 28

It took almost four hours to walk the thirteen kilometers to the airport. The tunnel was relatively clear, but they came across several areas were they could see homeless people had been living years before. Still, there wasn’t enough debris to block their path. It took them longer than it normally would because they pulled the welding torch on its double wheel trailer. They expected to have to cut their way out.

They passed three other emergency exits that they assumed led to underground rooms like the one they were living in, and one wide open area where several small electric cars were parked on the side.

“The tunnel has some of these underground garages,” Silvia explained. “These were the electric cars for single and dual passengers. There are some that are more like busses. I was afraid we might find some blocking the tunnel. We would still be able to get by, but it would make Randy’s plan a lot harder to carry out.”

Finally, they came to a wide room and the tunnel ended. There was a large metal plate like the one that Silvia had cut through in the underground room, though this one was at least four meters high and three meters wide.

Silvia looked at it. “I can cut the bottom and the sides part way up, but there’s nothing to climb on to get as high as we need to,” She said.

“Just cut the bottom and each side as high as you can reach. It may be enough,” Will said.

“You think?” She asked.

“It’s a Chariot,” Will answered.

Once she had an opening wide enough they could see that it had been built into a wall. Fernando hit the wall with his fist. “Not very thick,” He said. “Probably just to hide the entrance.”

He sat down, and using both feet, stomped into the wall several times until his feet went through. He got to his knees, cleared plaster and some thin wood pieces out of the way and crawled through. “Hand me a lantern,” he said.

They all crawled through behind him. When they stood up, they were in large empty room with metal shelves all around it. The shelves were empty.

“Looks like they just turned it into storage once they abandoned the tunnel then hid the tunnel entrance behind the wall,” Will said.

As they walked across the room, their lanterns illuminated the space and they saw a ramp running up and ending at a large garage door. There was a chain and large padlock on the bottom of the door. The twins pushed the welder up the ramp and held it in place while Silvia fired up the torch and cut the chain in half. Will and Fernando dragged the chain away, then pushed the door up.

They walked through and were in a wide parking area. They could tell no one had used it in a long time. Will looked at where the ramp started beneath the door. It was just a white concrete block wall that the door and been built into. The words, “The Boring Company,” was painted across the top.

“This is better than I expected,” Will said. “I was afraid we would have to break a wall down and wouldn’t be able to hide the opening and they might find out we escaped. But we can just pull the door back down. Unless they go inside this room and down the ramp, they won’t know we broke through at the other end.”

The kids walked into the parking lot. “It’s been two years since we’ve been on the outside,” Jason said. They were looking up at the sky. It was no different. Still too hazy to see stars, but they were on the outside. It _felt_ different.

“Hey, it’s going to be daylight soon,” Fernando said. “Let’s go back inside until its dark.”

They walked in and pulled the door back down.

  
  


When it was dark they went back out. Will and Fernando had dressed in the two Army uniforms that they had picked up at the surplus store. They were really big on the boys, but Will thought they might work if no one stopped them. 

“Now we need a car or something,” Will said, looking at the others.

“Are you driving or me?” Fernando asked.

“I can’t drive. I never learned how,” Will responded.

“You can drive a Chariot but not a car?” Silvia asked.

“I missed a few things,” Will said. “Besides, I’m only fourteen.”

“And how are we going to get in the port?” Fernando asked.

“There should be a lot of people driving in now for the Chariots. The Resolute comes back any day, so they’re supplying the base now. There will be tons of activity and the guy that dropped me off in my old neighborhood said security has been pretty lax. No war anymore. Not really anything to worry about.”

“And you don’t find that strange?” Silvia asked. “I mean, there was a terrorist attack two years ago that killed millions of people, and suddenly, the security is non-existent?”

They all looked at her, but didn’t respond. Will went on. “Plan A is to drive right through the gate and wave. Plan B, if they stop us, is to find a boat or kayak or something and go down the river into the port. They unload the ships right there. And there are neighborhoods between here and the base along the river. I don’t think it would be hard to find a boat at one of them. But if we can find something to drive, I’m betting we can drive in the port like any of the soldiers on their way to take the Chariots back to the base. We just need to find one loaded and ready to go with no one around. If it has two trailers that’s better, but we’ll settle for what we can get.”

“How much food can they put in one of the storage trailers?” Silvia asked.

“A lot. My guess is one load can feed the kids for months. Remember they’re Military Rations. The MRE’s are packed in plastic crates. One crate fed us for three months and there were seven of us. If my math is right, they pack twenty crates in the storage trailer. One transport would feed the kids for three or four months. But some of them pull double trailers. If we could get one of those, maybe six or seven months. At least give us time to plan what’s next.”

“So we get it back to the room at the river, then what?” Silvia asked.

“They float. They’re built to go to space and vacuum packed and sealed with O rings. That’s why the rafts and rope. Tie them together and just paddle them up river to the storm drain. Then I’ll go talk the kids into coming down there to get them. They’re afraid of the river, but I bet if I tell them there’s food there…”

“Silvia, any chance your dad taught you to hot wire a car?” Will asked.

“No. We hadn’t gotten to grand theft auto yet.”

“Well, let’s go then. We’ll have to get to an abandoned neighborhood and look for cars in driveways or garages. There are probably a lot left behind. We’ll have to break in the houses and look for keys.”

They were luckier than that. Like most airports, there was a large warehouse district surrounding it. Behind one of the buildings they found an old pickup truck. The keys were on the floor board. It wasn’t the kind of truck that anyone would want to steal.

Will and Fernando climbed in and after several attempts, Fernando got the engine to crank over and the two boys grinned at each other.

“We’ll head back to the tunnel and watch for you,” Silvia said. “Flash the lights when you get close so we know it’s you. If it has lights. She looked at the old truck’s hood. Fernando flipped the switch and the lights came on.

The kids bid them goodbye, and Silvia walked around to the passenger side and said, “Randy, don’t do anything stupid, OK. I think we need you here.”

He smiled at her. “Don’t’ worry Silvia.”

The boys drove off.

  
  


As they got away from the warehouse district and drove through some areas further away from the red zone, they entered some neighborhoods that were still inhabited.

“You know where you’re going?” Will asked.

“Yeah, I’m looking for a main road that will take me east back to the 710. That will lead us into the Seaside Highway to the Port. Then we see if you’re right and we can just drive in. I’m a little skeptical about that.”

“Yeah me too. But we’re going to find out,” Will said.

When they entered the 710, they saw there was a steady stream of traffic headed South. “There wasn’t this much traffic when we drove to my old neighborhood, and that was like, nine in the morning,” Will said. “It’s almost twenty two hundred. I bet they’re headed to the port. If so, this might actually work.”

They joined the traffic on the Seaside Highway, and began to see Chariots with the storage trailers in tow heading the other way. There was a line going through the port gate. The boys had army caps on and just lowered their heads and were waved through with the other vehicles driving past the gate.

“Follow them and park where they’re parking,” Will said. “We can probably just follow the crowd and find where the Chariots are being loaded. It will be close to the docks.”

  
  


They pulled in and Fernando turned the truck off. “I hope this works,” he said. “I don’t know if this old thing’s gonna start back up.” They followed a crowd of soldiers walking toward the docks. Will pointed to a long warehouse where a line of Chariots was being loaded.

They went into the building and watched as dock hands loaded the trailers. They kept walking down the row until they were at a line of Chariots that seemed to be already loaded. They kept walking, watching closely as soldiers would approach the Chariots, then drive off. There didn’t seem to be an organized system. When one was loaded, the dock hands would close up the trailer, then walk to the front of the Chariot and remove a red sticker from the windshield and replace it with a blue one. The Chariot would sit there until one of the soldiers in uniform climbed inside and drove off. This seemed too easy, Will thought.

“There,” he pointed to several Chariots with blue stickers that no one had taken. Four of them had double trailers hooked to them. Will casually walked over to one, opened the door and climbed inside. Fernando got in on the passenger side. They looked at each other. Will pushed the start button and they drove off. They kept their heads down as they drove down the road toward the gate. Will knew he looked way too young to be in the military. Neither one of them said a word as they approached the gate, but they were waved on like the other Chariots that had been driving through.

“Wow,” Will said. “Where do I go?”

“OK, let’s stay on the Freeway,” Fernando said. “There’s a Chariot pretty close behind. Maybe try to put some distance between us then get off the Freeway when he can’t see us. There’s no reason a Chariot would be leaving the Freeway around here.”

Will increased speed and as they rounded a curve, Fernando said, “There! Turn off the lights and take the exit. We’ll be off the Freeway before they round the corner.”

When they were on the exit ramp, they looked back and the Chariot behind them kept going. Finally the boys looked at each other and smiled. “We did it,” Will said.

“We did,” Fernando agreed.

They pulled up to the warehouse district at the abandoned airport forty minutes later. Will flashed the headlights as they drove down the frontage road and into the Boring Company parking lot. The kids threw the garage door open and ran outside. Will pulled up and turned off the engine. The kids surrounded the Chariot and congratulated them, giving them hugs and high fives. Silvia even smiled at Will. “Not bad, Randy. Not bad.”

Will climbed out of the Chariot and they walked to the back and opened the rear cargo trailer. It was stacked to the top with plastic crates. The twins climbed into the back and handed one down to Will and Fernando. They sat it down and opened the top. MRE’s were stacked inside.

“I hate MRE’s Adrian said.”

“One of them is peanut butter,” Will said. “If you mix it with any of them you don’t like, it’ll taste good.”

“You ready to get out of here?” Silvia asked.

“Yep,” Will said.

They climbed in the Chariot, and Will drove under the garage door and down the ramp. Silvia waited for the Chariot to be inside. She pulled the door down and ran down the ramp where Will had stopped to wait. Fernando climbed into the back and let Silvia have his seat in front. “This is so cool,” Adrian said. He had never been close to a Chariot before, much less ridden in one.

“Make sure everyone is buckled in,” Will said. “Its going to be bumpy.” He smiled to himself, thinking about being in space with his family, his dad or mom or Judy saying the same thing so many times. He was overcome with sadness again.

“You guys ready?” Will asked, as he drove to the far side of the room where the wall was partially down, and the metal plate was cut across the bottom and up both sides.

“Do it!” Tre said.

“Go Randy!” Adrian said.

Will put the Chariot in gear, picked up speed and headed directly to the wall. All seven kids were screaming like they were on a roller coaster when the Chariot plowed through the wall and bent the metal plate up. Will looked through the rear view mirror and saw both trailers were still OK. They drove down the tunnel.

Forty five minutes later Will pulled the Chariot up at the emergency exit next to the underground room. Will looked at Silvia, who was grinning. “Great fuckin job, Randy.”

That night they unloaded the crates but left them in the tunnel. They slept until late in the afternoon.

When they woke up, they waited until dark and began bringing the crates of MREs inside the little room and pushing them up the ladder. It was hard work, with Silvia and Fernando pulling them up by rope, and the other kids pushing from the bottom. It was almost midnight before they were all lined up by the river and roped together. Will and Fernando brought the inflatable rafts up. Silvia moved one next to the water, pulled a metal ring and stepped back while it inflated, then they pushed it into the water while Fernando inflated the other one after watching Silvia. 

“Can we sleep now?” Adrian asked.

“We can’t,” Will said. “We can’t risk leaving this stuff out. I don’t know how organized they are, but if they find a Chariot is missing, they may be looking all over for it. I would expect them to fly over. We need to get this downtown while it’s still dark.”

“Tre, You want to stay here with Adrian?” Silvia said.

“Don’t you need my help?” She asked.

“We can do it,” Will said. “The hard work is done until we get downtown and we’ll have help down there. You guys can get some sleep.”

They pushed the crates into the river. “You were right, Randy. They float,” Tre said.

  
  


“So what are you going to do, Randy?” Silvia asked him. “When this is done?”

Will and Silvia were in one raft, Fernando and the twins in the other as they paddled upstream toward the city, the line of crates stretching out behind them. 

He was quiet for a minute, then said, “I guess I haven’t really thought about it.” And he hadn’t. He was taking it a day at a time. He knew he wasn’t going back to his old life. As much as he missed his family, and knew they would be sad about not knowing what had happened to him, he had convinced himself they were better without him. They would have a hard time dealing with it, but eventually they would move on and live normal lives. They would never be able to do that with him around. And now, whatever had caused all of this, it had grown to something more. They had heard about him on earth, which seemed impossible, since there could have been no communication between Alpha Centauri and home in the two years they were gone.

“Whatever the others do, Adrian and I am staying on the river, so, you are welcome to stay if you want,” Silvia said.

“You’re not going to shoot me?” He grinned at her.

“Keep up that shit and I will,” She said.

It was almost three AM when they were near the storm drain where Will had left the river before. They hauled the crates out of the water on to the concrete bank. 

“Now what?” Fernando asked.

“You guys stay here; I’ll go get them. We need enough kids to get this stuff out of here,” Will said.

“Not by yourself,” Silvia said.

“They know me. I don’t think they would hurt anyone, but no one else should take the chance.” He stood.

The sun hadn’t quite come up by the time Will had made it to the office building where Billy and his group of kids lived. When he was walking across the street, four of them walked out and met him in the road. “We were betting you would never be back,” One of them said.

“I need to see Billy and Tom,” Will replied.

  
  
“Randy!” Tom was sitting back in the glass office with Billy and a few other kids when he walked. In.

“Hey Tom,” Will answered.

“So where’s all the food?” Billy was sitting next to Tom in a chair against the wall. He was smiling, then he looked at Tom and elbowed him in the ribs.

“I need help carrying it,” Will said.

“Seriously, you found some food?” Billy asked him.

“Yeah, I found some food.”

“Hey, Arnie, take a couple guys and help him bring it back,” He said to one of the boys sitting across the room.

“I need more than Arnie and a couple guys,” Will said.

“How many you need?” Billy asked.

“Um…forty. We need to get the crates into a building in case any patrols fly over during the day. Then you can figure out how to get it all back here.”

Tom and Billy both stood up, along with the other kids in the room. “You aren’t shitting us?” Tom asked.

“No. I figure there’s enough food for maybe five or six months. We might be able to get more after that, depending on how they react to this.” Will said.

“Who?” Billy asked.

“The military. We stole a Chariot from the port. It was loaded and ready to go to the base. The Resolute’s coming back and they were supplying it.”

“Who _are_ you?” Billy said.

“Randolph Carter,” Tom said.

“Yeah, I forgot,” Billy answered, smirking at Tom.

“You said, ‘ _we_ ’ stole a Chariot,” Tom said. “Who’s ‘ _we_?”

“I’ll introduce you,” Will said. “But we need to get going.”

“It’s almost daylight,” Billy said. “We can’t risk moving that many people during the day.”

“My friends are sitting there in the open with all this stuff. They risked their lives once I told them what you two are doing. We aren’t going to leave them there. Tom, do any of the tunnels come out near the 4th Street bridge?”

“One comes out a couple blocks away,” He answered.

“Let’s take that,” Will said.

Billy looked at Tom. “I guess our war is over,” He said.

On their way, they stopped by the tunnel where Tom’s group of kids were staying. The two guards saw them coming and started to run into the room where the others were. “No!” Tom yelled. “It’s me, Tom! Everything’s OK.”

Mike came out of the room and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Randy says he has food, Bring a few of the older kids.”

  
  


They came out of the tunnel just as the sun began to rise and followed Will into the industrial area. “Hey,” Billy said, “You’re headed towards the river.”

“That’s where the food is.”

“Wait,” Tom said. “That’s…”

“The river is not contaminated,” Will said. “They’ve been lying to you.”

Will led them through the storm drain and at the end, he looked out and saw Fernando and the kids. All of them were lying in the rafts asleep.

Tom came up beside him and looked out to the river where the rafts were on the concrete bank, with four kids curled up inside them fast asleep. There was a long line of plastic crates along the river. Tom grabbed Will by the arm. “So who exactly are you?”

“I’m Randy Carter, Tom. Come on, you hungry?”


	29. Chapter 29

Will was sitting around with Tom, Mike, Billy and Silvia in the glass office. They had slept for a few hours and now were waiting for it to get dark before heading back down the river. They kept expecting to hear helicopters searching over the red zone, but there had been nothing. The food had been hidden and Billy and Tom had set up a system for dispatching it evenly between all of the kids, keeping track of everything in Tom’s ledger. These two could probably run any business, Will thought.

“So, we can get out of here if we want?” Billy asked the others.

“Yes,” Will said.

“And then what?” Silvia asked.

“I don’t know,” Will said. “Find other people away from here. Away from the city.”

“So, we should all want to leave to go live with people on the outside, yet you came here to get away from them? How does that make sense?” She asked.

“I’m different,” Will said.

“You’re special?” She seemed to be very angry.

“No, I’m not special.” But she stood up and left the room without anything else to say.

“Well, thanks to Randy, It’s not a decision we have to make right now,” Billy said. “We need to think about it, and think about where we would go. It’s not going to be easy to get all these kids out of here before whoever is hunting us down finds them. Maybe in groups of three or four.”

Tom, Mike, and Billy walked down to the river with them that night to see them off. Will had decided to go back with the river kids for a while before deciding what to do.

“Randy, thanks for everything,” Billy said.

Mike and Tom both gave him a hug.

“When we figure out what we’re doing, we’ll talk, OK?” Tom said.

“Yeah,” Will said. “Billy and Tom, you guys are heroes, just in case no one ever tells you that,” Will said.

“Shit, Randy,” Billy said. “We’re just a couple of gamers with no electricity trying to stay entertained.”

  
  


When they were back down river they climbed down the ladder to the underground room. No one was there. Silvia called, “Adrian?”

There was no answer. “Where could they be?” Will said. “We didn’t see them on the river.”

Fernando shined his light across the room. He saw something scrawled in chalk across the cabinet. “Shit,” He said.

He held the light up. “Adrian went down the tunnel. Looking for him!” It said.

“Damn it!” Silvia said. She ran into the tunnel.

“Adrian!” Silvia called. She looked at the twins.

She looked back at Will. “Can we use the Chariot? You can turn it around when we get to the underground garage.”

“Yeah,” he said as they piled into it. “This might be tricky driving backwards this far though.”

Will backed up carefully, until they got to the underground garage, then he turned around and could make better time.

They parked the Chariot at the bottom of the ramp at the airport and ran up to the parking lot, closing the garage door behind them.

They ran out to an industrial road. They followed the road between the warehouses, calling, “Adrian! Tre!”

They looked all over but saw no sign of them, and there was no answer when they yelled.

“Goddamnit, Adrian,” Silvia said under her breath. She wiped tears.

“We’ll find him,” Will said. “Don’t worry.”

“Adrian!” She yelled again.

Then they heard helicopters. Fernando said, “Run!” And led them toward one of the buildings. They entered a side door, then looked out through a dirty window. Three helicopters passed overhead, then circled around.

“Did they see us?” Larry asked.

“No, they may have seen Tre or Adrian,” Will answered. “They looked like they had a destination in mind.” The helicopters were circling a block over, but they hadn’t landed yet. “We need to try to get over to where the helicopters are without being seen.”

They left the building and ran down the road toward the helicopters, keeping close to the side of the buildings.

They came to the corner of a wharehouse, next to the road the helicopters were circling.

“There he is!” Fernando was pointing toward an alley between two buildings where Adrian was running the opposite direction.

“Adrian!” Silvia called. The boy turned and saw them and started running back toward them. Silvia and Will ran out and grabbed him and they pulled him against the building.

“Where’s Tre?” Will yelled.

“They caught her!” The little boy was crying.

“They spotted us,” Fernando yelled, pointing up at the helicopters. He had stayed next to the warehouse with the twins. They ran back down the direction they had come, but when they came to the next road, two Jeeps were speeding down it toward them.

“Shit,” Fernando said.

“Listen,” Will said. “They can’t find how we got out. I’m going to lead them away, then you guys get back to the tunnel. Can you drive the Chariot, Fernando?”

“Yeah, I was paying attention.”

“Take it, but when you get to the river, go back downtown to Tom and Billy. They’ll make Tre tell them where you’ve been living.”

“She’ll never talk,” Jason said.

“She’ll talk, one way or the other. I know these guys,” Will said.

“How?” Silvia asked. She was looking at him suspiciously.

“Just trust me. But I’m valuable to them, when they see who I am they won’t hurt me.”

“Who are you, Randy?” Silvia asked.

He ignored her. He looked at all of them. “I love you guys.” He surprised himself as much as he surprised them with his words, but he realized it was true. He turned and ran into the road so both the helicopters and the Jeeps could see him. Then he ran down the road away from the Jeeps, and darted between two buildings to lead them further away from the kids and the airport.

The kids watched the Jeeps speed by, and above, the helicopters left to follow Will.

“Let’s get back to Boring,” Fernando said, and led them across the road.

Will kept running between buildings, but the helicopters were above him and he could see the Jeeps moving between the warehouses.

When Will sprinted off he had heard Adrian yell. He hoped they would be OK.

He ran between two buildings, looking to his right, when he came out on a gravel road. He saw three of the soldiers four buildings down from him. At least some of them followed him, he saw. He wanted to keep them chasing him as long as possible before giving himself up and telling them who he was.

He ran down the road away from the men, then back between two other buildings, then reversed and ran back toward the road he had been on. He heard the helicopters above him.

He pushed through the side door of a building, ran across an open warehouse, then back out another door. He looked up and down the pathway between two buildings. He ran across it into another door and another warehouse just as the helicopter flew over, but he thought he was inside before they saw him. He led them back and forth across roads and between buildings for twenty minutes, trying to give the kids time to get away before they caught him.

He ran out to a road, but two soldiers were standing there and saw him. They must have gotten out of the Jeeps. Will ran the other way. He turned and sprinted past another building and tried to open a side door, but it was locked. He knew the men would be around the corner any second. He was trapped. Time to give himself up he decided. He hoped he had given Fernando and the kids enough time.

Then the door opened, and he was pulled inside a dark storeroom. He started to say something, but someone put a hand over his mouth. The door rattled as the men who were chasing him tried to force it open. “He didn’t go in here,” one of the men said, and he heard footsteps run off.

“Stay here for a minute, Randy.”

“Silvia?”

“Shhh.”

“What…?”

“Shut up. You risked your life for my brother. I couldn’t leave you here. I saw you run between the buildings on the other side. There’s a door over there that I came through. Come on.”

She pulled him down the wall between a row of shelves. At the end of the building there was a window at the top. There was lumber stacked almost twelve meters high. “Up there,” She said. She started climbing.

They found a place near the ceiling where they could hide behind the stacks of wood. “Let’s see if we can wait them out,” She said.

“I heard Adrian yell,” Will whispered. “I guess that’s when you headed back for me.”

“Yeah. Now shut the fuck up,” She whispered.

They stayed behind the lumber at the top of the warehouse all afternoon. The helicopters continued to hover overhead, and they heard vehicles running up and down the road. Twice, people came in the warehouse and shined lights all around, but left without climbing the stack of lumber.

They watched the light fade in the window above them. They could still hear the search parties outside, but they had begun to think they might escape.

“So, you really think you can stay by the river forever?” Will asked. They were lying side by side, their feet stretched in front of them, lumber piled on both sides, their heads resting on their backpacks.

“I don’t know, Randy. When my dad went to the war for the last time, he made me promise to take care of Adrian. Then he never came back. I didn’t think about that promise much when our mom was alive. I was just thirteen when he told me that. But then when mom got sick, and everyone was dying, I started thinking about what that really meant. I’m all my brother has. As long as I think it’s safer for him at the river, I’m going to stay there. I just don’t trust people on the outside.”

“No kidding, it took you forever to trust me,” Will said. “I thought you were going to shoot me every day for the first week.”

“Who says I trust you now? Besides, the only reason I didn’t shoot you is the gun doesn’t work.”

“What? The gun doesn’t even work?”

“That old thing? Of course not.”

Will chuckled. Then he laughed. Then they were both laughing.

“You weren’t ever scared though, were you?” She asked him. She had turned on her side so she could look at his face.

“No.”

“Why not? You didn’t think I would do it?” She asked.

“Oh, there were a few times I was pretty sure you were going to shoot me.”

“But you still weren’t scared. Why not?”

He turned and looked at her now. “Because I didn’t care Silvia.”

She stared at him for a minute. “What happened to you?” She asked him.

He didn’t answer at first, he just stared back into her eyes. “A lot of things, Silvia. I have a family that loves me so much. My sisters are just like you are with Adrian. They take care of me and protect me, but everything I did put them in danger. So I made the decision that I needed to leave. And I guess I decided...without them, I didn’t really care if I lived or died. So I came here. Here where no one was supposed to go. And I found out there were great people here. Heroes like you and Fernando and Billy and Tom, just trying to stay alive and keep other people alive. And that’s when I realized I wasn’t special at all. None of the things I had done was special. So many people would have done the same things I did.”

“Your name isn’t Randy is it?”

He just looked back at her without answering.

“We might end up dying tonight. The least you could do is fucking be honest with me.”

“My name’s Will Robinson.”

“Randy…”

“My name is Will Robinson. I went to space on the 24th Colonist Group.”

She just stared at him for a minute. “You’re not lying to me are you?”

“No, I’m not lying to you.”

“All of the stories are true then?” She asked.

“I don’t know what all of the stories are, but The Resolute was attacked by a robot, and we had to abandon ship. I found the robot on the planet we landed on, and somehow we made a connection. I can’t explain how or why, but everything that has happened to me and my family since was because of that. So I left it all behind. I think they are better off without me, and so I left.”

“I thought it was all bullshit,” She said.

“But, how do you know about me...about Will Robinson? I don’t think I’m the person this Will Robinson is supposed to be. I’m just a kid. But, what happened, happened when there was no communication with Earth from Alpha Centauri or The Resolute. We were in Space for weeks when the robot attacked. Then we were stranded for a year on different planets before there was any contact with Alpha Centauri. And I wasn’t even on the Resolute when it went to Alpha Centauri. There could have been no communication with Earth until we came back through the rift two months ago on our first trip back. How could anyone have heard of what happened?”

“Adrian came home from school talking about it before the virus. That was two years ago. That’s the first I heard. Then all the kids seemed to know about Will Robinson and his robot. Within a couple of months it was common knowledge, and the kids would be playing games, pretending to be Will Robinson or the robot. Seemed like most of them wanted to be the robot.” She grinned mischievously.

“Now I have a question for you,” Will said. “Why did you come back for me?”

“You risked your life for my brother. For all of us. For those kids downtown. But now I’m bullshitting you. This is why.” She put her hands behind his neck and pulled him close and kissed him.


	30. Chapter 30

Penny drove South on the Freeway until she began seeing helicopters off to the West, toward the ocean. She exited, following the helicopters when she could see them through the thick air. As she got closer, she saw there were a lot of military vehicles and Jeeps patrolling a warehouse district. She knew it was Will they were looking for. She had no idea why he would have begun smuggling. She couldn’t imagine her brother would be stealing food meant to go to the Resolute. Much of it was for emergency purposes. Now that the robots and the rift were no longer a secret, everyone knew it was a matter of a couple of weeks to get to Alpha Centauri. But they also knew shit happened. MRE’s had kept the colonists on the 24th group alive for a year.

She drove through the warehouse district between parked military vehicles and chariots. The helicopters were still overhead. She was glad she was dressed in the fatigues that Sonny had given her. She pulled the cap down over her face and drove down one road and up another. “How in the hell am I going to find him in all of this?” She thought.

She searched all afternoon. The warehouse district went on for many kilometers near an old abandoned airport. They were searching every building.

Finally she pulled off behind a row of Jeeps and a couple of Chariots, and waited for it to get dark. She figured if Will was going to try to get away, he wouldn’t do it in the daylight. She still had no idea how she would find him when none of these other people were having any luck. Then she remembered the LFR! Judy said his radio had gone dead after he disappeared, and she had tried the LFR for a week before giving up. But Things had changed with what Sonny had told her. She was convinced it was her brother they were looking for.

She held her wrist radio up and searched the contacts until she found SWA, which stood for “Save Will’s Ass.” Judy had made the entire family enter the coordinates for his LFR in their wrist radios.

She was concerned for a second that if Will didn’t have his LFR set to vibrate, it might beep and some of the soldiers searching for him would hear it. But she had no choice. She pressed the signal twice. If he heard it he would signal back three times. Once she had the signal, the GPS on her wrist radio would track him. Then what? She could drive close, but he only had the receiver and signal source. If he didn’t have his wrist radio he had no GPS to find out where she was. The only chance was that her signal would get stronger the closer she was. If Will could stay put until then, she might be able to get close enough for him to find her.

She kept pressing the signal over and over again, but there was no response. “Come on Will,” She said.

Will and Silvia had laid at the top of the warehouse all afternoon. Will was confused. He liked Silvia. A lot, if he admitted it to himself. And he knew she liked him. But he was in love with Nin. He had been since the day he had awoken and saw her in his room. But when he left the base, he thought he might never see her again. Had prepared himself for that. Now he wasn’t so sure. He was going to have to give himself up he figured, and then he would be right back with IA. They would take him back to the Amber planet and he would see Nin again. He smiled at the thought, but then Silvia moved, and he looked down at her. She had fallen asleep with her head next to his shoulder. Now he was confused again.

The warehouse door opened, and a flashlight shined it. “Hey,” he whispered.

Silvia opened her eyes. “Shhh,” he said.

She rose up and peered over the lumber. They had stacked some in front of them. The light flashed around. The soldiers came closer, shined the light up the lumber stack. Silvia ducked back down. The men left.

“Silvia. I’m going to turn myself in,” Will whispered.

“No!”

“Listen, they’re going to find the tunnel opening if they haven’t already.”

“But you said Tre would tell them anyway.”

“Yeah, and I could be wrong. But I’m not wrong about this. If I walk out, they’ll stop looking and you can get out of here.”

“And you go back to being their slave,” She said.

“Yeah, but I go back to my family too. I wanted to just disappear and let them live their lives. But not if it means they catch you guys. I can get you out of here. And you have Adrian to think about.”

He reached in his pocket and took out the LFR. “What’s that?” Silvia asked him.

“It’s a low frequency radio. My sister gave it to me. I’ve had it turned off, but I can signal her on it to let her know I’m still alive, then I’ll walk out and give myself up. When everyone leaves you can get out of here.”

“No!”

“Silvia, listen. When I said I love you guys I meant it. You guys are great. I can’t let anything happen to you. You have food now, and you can go downtown with the others if you want. Or leave through the tunnel. As long as they don’t find it. But I can’t stay with you and let them catch you if I can stop it.”

She just looked at him for a while, then said, “Are you sure, Randy…Will?”

“No. I’m not sure about anything anymore.” His voice was sad. “But I don’t have any choice.” Then he chuckled. “I never have a choice.”

He looked at the LFR. “I hope the battery is still good,” He said, and powered it on.

As soon as it came on he received two beeps. He quickly set it to vibrate. “She’s signaling me. Weird, I’ve been gone almost six weeks.”

He pressed the button several times.

“Morse?” Silvia asked.

“Yeah, telling her what’s going on.”

  
  


  
Penny had been pressing the signal into her radio over and over again for almost an hour. She had about given up, but she didn’t know what else to do. She would pause between signals, but there was no response. And then there was. Several beeps, a pause, more beeps.

“Will!” Penny said. She immediately tried to call him on the wrist radio. She thought if the LFR was working now, his radio might be, but it went right to voice mail. There were more signals coming over the LFR.

“Shit! I don’t know Morse Will!” She felt like an idiot. She was the only one in the family who didn’t know Morse code. She signaled twice, then stopped.

  
  


“Weird,” Will said. “Judy knows Morse. I don’t think it’s her.”

“Maybe they know about the LFR and they’re tricking you,” Silvia said.

“Maybe, but I guess it wouldn’t matter if I was going to turn myself in anyway. But I don’t think it’s them.”

The LFR buzzed twice again. “No way,” he said. He pressed the button three times and stopped. There was a pause, then it buzzed twice.

He looked at Silvia. “It’s Penny.” He signaled three times and waited; the two buzzes came back. “It _is_ her. How did she get to Earth?” He signaled her again.

“Oh my God Will!” Penny said aloud. “I fucking knew you were alive.” She signaled again, waited, the three beeps came back. “Yes!”

She quickly merged the signal with her GPS. The map appeared, and a blue dot began blinking in the warehouse district maybe half a kilometer away. She signaled Will again, then started the Chariot and drove down the road past parked military vehicles and soldiers walking in and out of buildings.”

  
  
  


“She’s going to track our signal with GPS,” Will said. “We need to get down close to the door.”

“How will we know when she’s here?” Silvia asked.

“The signal will get stronger. That’s all we have to go on.”

They climbed down, waited at the bottom of the stack of lumber to make sure none of the soldiers were coming in, then walked past shelves of building material until they were at a side door. Will kept signaling, and the signal coming back was stronger each time. “She’s getting closer,” Will said.

Penny followed the GPS. It appeared to be leading ahead and to the left. There was a long line of warehouse buildings on this road, all of them relatively the same size. It looked like they had all been searched, with doors open and people walking in and out, but now as she grew closer, she saw dozens of soldiers going in them one at a time, and material being pulled out on to the road. It looked like a team had just come out of the warehouse next to the one the GPS signal was leading to.

Will peered out through a dirty window pane. Jeeps and Chariots kept driving by, but down the road there seemed to be one moving slower than the others. The signal was getting stronger. “I think she’s coming in a Chariot,” Will said. Silvia was standing just behind him.

The Chariot pulled up in the middle of the road in front of the building. Will wasn’t sure who was in it, then the interior light came on and he saw his sister sitting behind the wheel in military fatigues with a cap pulled low over her face. He smiled. He had thought he was never going to see her again. He was overcome with emotion and his eyes filled with tears when she smiled at him. She turned the light off.

Will pulled Silvia’s hand and they walked casually to the Chariot and climbed in the back seat and laid on the floorboard. Penny drove off. Will reached his hand between the seats on the console and Penny took it.

“Hi little brother,” She said.

He didn’t answer, he just squeezed her hand. “You OK, Will?”

“Yeah.”

Penny could tell he was emotional.

“Will?”

Then he said, “I didn’t expect to ever see you again.”

“Will, you can’t get away from me. I’m your always companion. So stop trying, OK?”

He didn’t answer, he just kept holding her hand.

Silvia watched all of this. Will, the boy she had known as Randy, was strong and sure of himself and brave to the point of being reckless. But now she saw another side of him. A vulnerable child who was just happy to be with his sister. She smiled at the two of them.

“Who’s your friend?” Penny asked.

“Silvia,” she said. “Thanks for saving our ass Penny.”

“Don’t thank me yet. We need to get out of here first. Will I came back on the Jupiter 2.0 with Gary and Clark. If we can get back to the Freeway and to the desert I’ll signal Gary and they’ll pick us up. I just don’t know what to do about Judy. But Don will be there with the Resolute so maybe we can get them both.”

Will still hadn’t said anything and Penny could tell he was crying.

Penny made a left at the end of the road, then headed back down the next alley toward the freeway. There were soldiers everywhere. She drove slowly, keeping her head down as much as possible. There was a Jeep and Chariot in front of her, driving slowly.

“They sure are interested in finding these smugglers,” Penny said. “You sure they don’t know it’s you little brother?”

“They’re afraid someone escaped from the red zone,” Silvia said. “The last thing they want is people escaping.”

“So they aren’t all dead there?” Penny asked.

“Most of them,” Silvia said, “And they can’t let the rest out.”

“Because of the virus?” Penny asked.

“So no one will find out what happened there.”

“What happened there?” Penny asked.

“They’re killing them, Penny,” Will said, finally talking. “Starving them. Shooting them. They shot hundreds of kids after coaxing them to a square with food.”

“Kids? Jesus. Now I know what you were doing. You were feeding them, weren’t you? The kids that were left.” Suddenly it all made sense. And it was such a Will thing to do.

Her brother didn’t answer, so Silvia said, “Yes. Randy…Will came up with a plan and it worked. We took a Chariot and the food will feed the kids that are left for months.”

“How many kids?”

“Maybe a hundred seventy or so,” Will said.

“Jesus. I can’t believe this,” Penny said. “Shit! They’re searching vehicles. We’re fucked.”

Will and Silvia peaked up over the seats. The Chariot in front of them was being searched. “Go around and drive through, Penny,” Will said.

She turned the Chariot and pushed the accelerator to the floor. There was a Jeep halfway in the road that the vehicles had to drive around once they were allowed to pass. Penny drove the Chariot into the Jeep, shoving it out of the way. She sped off.

“Take a right at the cross street Penny,” Will said.

“They’re coming!” Penny said, looking in her review.

Will and Silva looked behind them where Jeeps had begun chasing. Penny turned right where Will directed her. “They’re gaining on us!” She said. She turned left.

“Shit! There’s a fence!”

“Just drive through it,” Will said. He and Silvia had both climbed in the back seats.

“Won’t they follow us?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Penny asked.

“You both buckled it?” Will asked.

“Yeah,” Penny and Silvia said.

“OK, hold on tight. Penny, just before the fence is an electric barrier. The Chariot will protect us like it did you and mom. But it’s going to be rough.”

“Jesus Will. I liked it when you were scared of everything.”

“I wish I had known him then,” Silvia said. She was holding on tight to the hand grip above her.

Will just grinned at her. His eyes were big. Penny looked at him through the rearview mirror, and remembered the older Will in her dreams, blasting through a cell door to rescue her, his eyes glowing like they were now. He had changed. She wasn’t sure it was for the better. Then she heard an electrical charge and the Chariot was airborne.

“Fuuuuuuuuk!” She yelled. The Chariot ripped through the chain link fence three meters in the air, then landed on the other side, bouncing once, then turning sideways in the road, skidding to a stop in a ditch.

“We’re alive!” Penny said.

“I told you,” Will was still grinning. They looked behind them. Jeeps had pulled up at the barrier and soldiers were climbing out with weapons drawn. “Go Penny.”

She put the Chariot in gear and drove out of the ditch and back into the road, heading toward the city. They heard helicopters above them. It was night and the air quality was bad anyway, so it would be hard for them to be spotted. “Turn off the lights, Penny, and let’s find an alley.”

“No! There!” Silvia was pointing to a parking garage down the block. Penny turned the lights off and drove into the garage and stopped. She kept the engine running. They heard the helicopters overhead.

They sat in the darkness listening. Penny unbuckled her seatbelt so she could turn in her seat. Will unbuckled and moved up and the two of them grabbed each other and held on without speaking for a long time. Silvia just watched them, a smile on her face.

“My god, Will. They said you were dead,” Penny finally mumbled into his neck.

He just held on to her without answering. When she let him go he said, “Penny, why did you come here? What’s going on?”

“I think you were right about everything. We hiked up to the Sand Flats, and we could see IA’s new facility. They’re moving all of their equipment from all over Alpha Centauri. It’s a staging area. We think they’re leaving Alpha Centauri for the Amber Planet. They arrested Vijay and Angela. Me too, but Gary and Clark and Robot rescued me. They saw us with a drone when we were at the Sand Flats.”

“Vijay? Are you and…never mind,” Will said.

“And they arrested the entire council. They had been trying to find out about the dirty bomb here and IA wasn’t cooperating.”

“They fucking did it,” Silvia said. “No one would believe me.”

“We don’t think they did it,” Penny said. “We think it was some group they worked with in the war, so they covered it up.”

“They fucking did it!” Silvia said again.

“But why…?”

“They did it Penny,” Will said. “I don’t know why, but they did.”

“How do you know?”

Will looked at Silvia. “Silvia showed me that they were using the 8G towers for the electric barrier along the river. But the towers went up a year before the virus. That doesn’t prove anything. It could have been convenience since the towers were already there. But downtown, along the freeway they were replacing the light poles a year before it happened. They were replacing perfectly good light poles, that were spaced too far apart for the electrical barrier components. They were building the infrastructure to contain the population. It was planned and carried out. They killed millions of people here. You were right all long Silvia.”

The girl just looked back. Tears came to her eyes, but she didn’t say anything. As much as she had thought that was what they were doing, hearing she was right was shocking.

“But why Will?” Penny asked. “Why would they do that?”

“Because there is no room for us,” Silvia said. Tears were running down her cheeks. “Not in a new world. We don’t fit.”

Will put a hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it off. “We don’t go to the right schools. We don’t look like you or think like you or talk like you. We aren’t good enough for you. Do you fucking think this is something new? We’ve been living this way since the beginning. Pushed into the bad neighborhoods. The wrong zip codes. The zip codes that don’t get a chance to go to space. We aren’t you. And they finally found a way to get rid of us. While the world was falling apart. While your kind was escaping to another planet. While no one was looking. They exterminated us. They put a fence up to keep us in until it was all over, but some of the kids survived longer than they expected. So they decided to just starve us out. They knew we would eventually be at each other’s throats. Killing and raping and taking everything we could until we were finally dead. Because that’s the way we are. But you know what? We surprised them. We’re still here. A couple of sixteen year old kids got together and organized things and they’ve been keeping everyone alive. Because we are just as good as any of you.”

“Better,” Will said. “Because you wouldn’t do this to us.”

They sat in silence for a while, Silvia softly crying. Penny had tears in her eyes, Will was watching Silvia. He didn’t know what to say to her. Finally she reached out and pulled him to her and put her face in his neck and cried.

They stayed under the parking garage for a couple of hours. Eventually they stopped hearing the helicopters.

“Penny let’s try to drive downtown,” Will said. “There are kids down there. Silvia’s little brother should be with them.”

Silvia was leaning over with her head against Will’s chest. She sat up and buckled her belt. “I’m sorry, that was unfair.” She said. “You two saved my life. And Randy…Will…has done so much…”

“Silvia,” Penny said. “Don’t apologize. I would hate us forever if I were you.” They heard the pain in Penny’s voice. She had been hurt deeply by what she had heard. Silvia reached up and squeezed her arm.

As they drove through the abandoned streets, Penny tried to call Judy, but her radio was off. “Will, can you signal her on the LFR? She thinks you’re dead. She’s in bad shape.”

Will sighed. He seemed to always hurt the people he loved the most. He took the LFR out and sent the signal, waited, sent it again. “Maybe she really did give up on me,” He said.

“No, something’s wrong. She would have answered her radio. The first transport was due to arrive today. Do you think IA has done something with her?”

Will just looked out the window at the dirty streets as they drove, wondering if his family would ever be free of him.


	31. Chapter 31

“ _He fucking did what?_ ” Hastings was in front of a team of doctors and the military commander of the base and two of the commander’s aides. When the Resolute 2 came back to Earth he had taken the first transport and immediately went to the hospital at the base to check on Will.

“Do any of you have a fucking clue how important that kid is? To fucking _mankind_? We’ll be lucky if that robot even makes it back to Alpha Centauri, and the most important kid in the world just walked out of this fucking hospital on this fucking military base and disappeared. Jumped into a goddamn river and swam away.”

“Well, he wouldn’t have survived,” one of the doctors said. “The river was cont…”

“You goddamn idiot. Get the fuck out of here. All of you doctors get the fuck out of here.”

“Take me to the girl you caught,” Hastings said to the commander and his aides. They led him out of the room across the base and through an office complex to a staircase leading down. They walked through a dim hallway past several doors with small, screened windows. One of the aides unlocked a door to a room and stood back as Hastings and the two IA officers walked in.

Tre was sitting in the corner. When the door opened she looked up and quickly put her hands over her head and said, “Please don’t.”

Hastings walked over and pulled her up by the arm until she was standing. “Please,” She begged. “Don’t hurt me.”

She had been severely beaten. Her face was a mass of bruises and she had blood all over her.

Hastings pressed a button on his radio and held it up to her face. “Is this Randy Carter?” He asked her.

She looked down the at the image of Will on the face of Hasting’s radio. “Y..yes..yes.”

Hastings looked at the aide who had opened the door. “Take her to the hospital.”

He left the room and looked over at the commander, “I want a meeting now.”

Hastings was in a conference room standing in front of several military leaders and IA agents. “No one thought this kid might possibly be Will Robinson? No fucking coincidence that Will Robinson disappeared and a month later someone’s hijacking our shit, driving our Chariot away like he was going on a Sunday cruise? And when you beat that girl half to death and she told you it was a teenage boy who arranged all of this, not one goddamn one of you thought it could possibly be Will Fucking Robinson? It didn’t even enter your fucking pea brains that the coincidence might be a little too fucking… _coincidental_?”

“But sir, he jumped…”

“Jesus. The river is not fucking contaminated,” Hastings said. “Nothing is fucking contaminated.”

“But…” The Commander started to argue.

“Below your pay grade,” Hasting said.

“I’m the Commander of…” One of the IA agents shot him in the back of the head with a pistol. The man didn’t use a laser because the sound of the gun did a much better job of getting the attention of everyone in the room.

The man fell face forward on the floor, his body kicking as blood spouted from the hole in his head.

“Any more questions about just who is in charge here?” Hastings said to the other military officers.

They all stared back at him in shocked silence.

“Good. Now get the fuck out of here.” The room cleared except for the IA agents.

“Clear them out. Start at the river. Kill everything that moves until you find the boy. But everything else dies. Dogs. Cats. Frogs. Fucking crickets. They should have done it a year ago. No one can make the hard decisions but me, I guess. Wipe them out and bring the boy back. And if one of your fucking cowboys hurts the kid you’ll be lying here next to Commander corpse.”

He left the room. He walked down the hall and into an elevator, went down to the basement level then down a hall to another door. He breathed deeply, calming himself, then opened the door. Judy was lying on her bed. She stood up immediately. “What’s going on?” She asked.

“It’s OK, Judy. There’s been an attack. You need to stay here for your own safety. We’re looking for your sister too. We’ll get her back safely. Are you sure she didn’t leave with Gary on the Jupiter 2.0?”

“No, they dropped her off and left her here. That’s what she asked them to do. Where’s my radio? And I want out of this room!”

“Judy, you’ll get your radio back, don’t worry. We think you’re in danger, and we want to make sure you are safe and get Penny back before we let you out of here. But you’ll be OK, I promise. There’s a guard right outside the door.”

“I want to see Don.”

“Alright, I’ll have someone find him and bring him down, just be patient.” He left and she heard the door lock.

She laid back down on the bed.

An hour later there was a knock, then she heard a key. A man in military uniform opened the door, then stood out of the way and Don walked in. Judy ran up and hugged him. She didn’t talk for a long time; she just kept her arms around him.

Finally she let him go. Don saw she was crying. “Judy, what’s happening?” He asked.

“Oh Don. So many things.” She walked over and laid down on the bed. He sat beside her.

She told him the story from the time Will had run away, until Penny had disappeared. By the time she was done she was crying again. He laid down beside her and put his arm under her neck and she put her head on his shoulder.

“Don, everything I’ve done has been wrong. It started when I jumped in the water to keep Will from having to do it. He was just so scared. So small. And Dad saw him as different than he really was. Or I thought that at the time. Maybe Dad really knew Will more than any of us. It’s like, no matter what happened, all of us trying to take care of him, Dad just had so much confidence in him.

“To Dad, character is everything. And no matter what happened to Will, what he was going through, Dad always came back to Will’s character. How strong it was. When I wasn’t seeing him on Alpha Centauri, and I had lunch with Dad, I asked how Will was doing. And he just said Will had strong character, so he would be fine, he just had to go through it. And I think all along he was right. Whether it was his military training or whatever. Dad recognized a strength in Will that the rest of us didn’t. I sure didn’t. And I think that’s what I fucked up, Don.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “Judy, I haven’t seen a connection between siblings before like I have seen between you three. It’s uncanny somehow. You’ve done what you thought was best for Will. For the right reasons. Because you love him.”

“Does that matter, Don? If it caused his death? If it split our family up? If Penny never forgives me? Nothing worked. Dad was always right.” She turned her head and looked at him. She was attracted to him of course. Always had been. But because of circumstance, or their age difference, or whatever, she just never…she leaned up and kissed him.

When she pulled back he looked at her, surprised.

She turned her body until she was lying halfway on top of him. They just looked at each other for a few seconds. Then she raised up and kissed him again, this time passionately.

He felt her against him, her lips, her soft body pushing into him, first gently, then urgently. He kissed her back, his hands moved over her, pulling her in, though she needed no encouragement. He had thought of this more than a few times, though he would catch himself when he realized he was staring at her. It was especially tough on the Water Planet when they would find themselves alone in the galley late at night, or sitting on the crescent couch after the others had gone to bed. He would catch himself staring and make a joke, a sarcastic remark, anything to break the tension and try not to think about what he was thinking about. But now she just felt good to him.

His hands moved over her back, then lower, then he grasped her by the shoulders. Pushed her away. Looked in her eyes. Her beautiful eyes. “Judy…I can’t.”

She ignored him and moved her mouth toward his again.

He stopped her. “I can’t Judy. I can’t.”

“Why not Don?”

“I just can’t.”

“Because you think I’m a kid?” He noticed the flash of anger in her eyes.

“God no. I’ve tried to think of you that way since I first met you. But I couldn’t. You’re a beautiful woman. Smart and tough and I’ve thought of this so many times you can’t imagine.”

“Then what’s the problem? We are both adults…alone. What’s the problem? Ava?”

“No. We see each other, but neither of us have any expectations.”

“Then what’s the fucking problem, Don?”

“You’re my friend. A great friend,” he said. He gently stroked her cheek. “And I don’t want to ruin that.”

“Jesus Don. How old are you? We’re adults. I don’t want to marry you. I want to have sex with you. Nothing has to change.”

“But it will. It always does. I have lost more than one friend because we thought it was just sex. It’s never just sex. And I won’t lose you over it. You’re too important to me.”

He pushed her away and stood up. He walked to the door. She just laid on the bed and watched him. She was angry and frustrated and she wasn’t going to hide it.

Don knocked on the door. It opened and the guard stuck his head in. Don stood looking at Judy for a second, thinking how beautiful she was and how stupid he was. “I’ll be back tomorrow, Judy.”

She had stopped looking at him and was staring at the ceiling and didn’t respond. He looked at her a few more seconds, then turned and left.

She kept staring at the ceiling. Her hands were beside her, and she had bunched up the blanket in her fists. “Fuck!” She said.


	32. Chapter 32

Will directed Penny to the office building downtown where Billy and his group lived. “We’re close,” Will said. Let’s look for a parking garage to hide the Chariot and walk so we don’t scare anyone.”

They found a garage a couple of blocks away. When they were parked, Penny said, “There are a couple of laser rifles in the seat behind you.”

“Wow. I get a weapon?” Will asked.

“Silvia, hand me one, and you keep the other one,” Penny said. Giving her brother a snarky smile.

They walked down the street. When they were a few blocks away from the building Billy and the kids stayed in, Will looked up toward the fifteenth floor, searching for a flicker of a light. It seemed completely dark.

“I can’t believe this,” Penny said as they walked down the deserted streets, among the the abandoned buildings with broken windows in many of them, office furniture lying in the street, garbage all around. “You told me, but I just didn’t see how it could be this bad.”

“You should have been here to watch it,” Silvia said. “We used to think adults had everything under control, but when it started to break down, we realized they were clueless. I think it was easier for the kids. Our parents grew up when things were a lot nicer. Maybe we just didn’t expect as much.”

They were almost to the office building when three kids ran out and met them in the middle of the street.

“Remember, Penny. I’m Randy,” Will whispered. “I don’t want them to know who I am.”

“What’s the difference? It’s not like they would know who Will Robinson is,” She whispered back.

“Everyone has heard of Will Robinson,” Silvia whispered.

“What? How?” She asked, but then the kids were there.

“Randy! You made it.” It was Mike. “Your friends told us what happened. Everyone thought they would kill you for sure.”

“Is my brother here?” Silvia asked.

“The little guy? Yeah, he’s upstairs with the other kids. We’re all here now.”

Will and Penny looked at Silvia and could see the relief on her face. Will put his arm around her, and Penny looked at him, wondering about their relationship.

Mike and the other kids led them back to the building. When they started up the stairs, Mike said, “Billy finally agreed we can move down to the ground floor when everything settles down, since he and Tom called a truce.” He grinned at Will. It looked like they had decided not to let all the kids in on the fake war.

As they walked down the hall on the fifteenth floor, Penny saw the children they passed were all skinny and dirty and looked lost. She and her siblings had been through a lot, but these kids had the look of those in refugee camps that she had seen on television. Over two years ago this had started, and they had been trying to survive ever since. She couldn’t imagine it. She smiled at them as she walked by, but most of them just looked at her and kept going, no expression on their faces.

“Night is their daytime,” Will explained as they walked. “After they killed all the kids in the square, they began sleeping through day and coming out at night. There used to be a lot of kids going on searches at night, but they have food now.”

“We still go searching,” Mike explained. “The food will last a few months, but after that, we plan to still be here.”

They entered the room where Billy stayed. There were a dozen or so kids here.

“Silvia!” Adrian was sitting with three other kids his age, playing a board game. He ran to his sister and she picked him up in her arms and hugged him.

Penny and Will watched them, then looked at each other and smiled. When Silvia let her brother go, Penny said, “Hi. I’m Penny. Wi…Randy is my brother.”

“Randy’s my friend.” Adrian said, looking at Will. “We thought you got caught.”

“Almost, but Penny saved us,” Will said.

Then Fernando came out of the glass enclosed office with the twins and Tom and Billy.

Fernando ran up and hugged Silvia. Then turned and hugged Will, surprising the boy. “How the hell did you get away?” He asked.

“Penny saved us,” Will said, motioning toward her. “This is my sister.”

“Let’s go talk,” Billy said, and led them back to the glass office.

When they were inside, Will pulled the blinds back and saw there were black shades pulled over the window. “I didn’t see the lights outside, and wondered why,” he said.

“Yeah, we found these a few months ago,” Billy said. “Haven’t needed them until now. A lot of activity all night.”

They all grabbed chairs and Tom said, “So tell us what happened.”

Will filled them in on everything, with Silvia adding some details. Penny kept quiet.

“So they have Tre.” Fernando said.

“Is Tre a girl?” Penny asked.

“Yeah, she was with us at the river. She’s our friend.”

Penny looked at Adrian, who had been sitting on Silvia’s lap, then looked up at Silvia.

“Hey, Adrian, why don’t you go back to your game with the other kids,” Silvia said.

“You sure you don’t need me,” He asked.

She smiled at him. “I’ll come get you if we do.”

When he had left the room Penny said, “Yeah, they have her. They tortured her I think. That’s what someone told me.”

Fernando looked at his friends, then at Will. Jason started crying, and his twin brother put an arm around his shoulders. Penny could tell the other kids were upset as well. She looked at her brother. He just looked angry. Penny realized he had already known.

“So, we have to talk about what we’re going to do,” Billy said. “We have a way out now; we just don’t know what to do once we leave. Tom and I have tried to keep these kids alive for two years, we don’t want to just send them out there to die.”

“But you can’t stay forever,” Will said. “There’s nothing here for you. It just keeps getting worse. And if we’re right, that they planned the whole thing, we still don’t know why.”

“I know why,” Silvia said.

“There has to be more to it,” Will said. “More than just wanting to kill people they don’t like.”

“No Randy, there doesn’t really have to be more to it than that. They just finally had the opportunity.”

He didn’t want to argue with her. And he was exhausted. It was almost daylight and he hadn’t slept in a day and a half. “Guys, I need to get some sleep,” Will said. “Can we talk later?”

“Yeah,” Tom said.

“Go upstairs to the other floor to sixteen oh nine,” Billy said. “Someone had a bedroom off his office. You can get some sleep there away from everyone.”

Will stood up to go. Penny waited a second to see if Silvia was going to follow him. She didn’t know what their relationship was, and she didn’t want to presume.

Silvia saw Penny glance at her. “Hey Penny, you have to be exhausted too, why don’t you go with him?”

She smiled at the girl and stood to go with her brother. Silvia stood and hugged her. “Thank you, Penny.”

Then she turned and hugged Will. Penny noticed that she didn’t break this hug for a while.

They took a lantern with them and made their way back to the staircase then upstairs to the office Billy had told them about. There was a room in the back with a double bed. They laid down and stared up at the ceiling. Will put his arm behind Penny’s neck and she slid closer to him. Then she started crying.

“I thought you were dead Will. I didn’t want to believe it. I kept telling Judy you were still alive, but I really thought you were dead. Why did you do that? Just run off?”

He didn’t say anything for a minute, just laid there staring up at the dark ceiling. “I didn’t think about it Penny. I was sitting on that bench with Judy, and the guy pulled up in the Chariot and left the door open. I just looked at the Chariot and it just came to me to leave. Drive away. And then once I was out the gate, I just decided to keep going. Nothing was working. No one believed what I was saying. Judy stopped her entire life for me. You stopped going to school and was just waiting for us. IA controlled everything, held all the cards, and I realized we couldn’t win. I could keep working for them to get people off the planet. I was doing that at least. Something good.

“But it wasn’t just _my_ life. It was your’s and Judy’s too. So when I drove into the fence, I just didn’t care. And when I survived that, I tossed my radio away and decided I wasn’t going back. And you guys could finally…finally...get on with your lives.”

Penny sat up. “Goddamn you Will! Goddamn you!” She doubled up her fist and hit him in the chest. “Goddamn you!”

He looked up at her without saying anything back.

“Goddamn you!” She hit him again, hard enough to hurt, but he didn’t react. “You can’t fucking do that Will! Not to me! You can’t fucking do that!”

They just looked at each other. He reached up and grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to him. She put her face down on his pillow, her cheek against his and cried. Then he was crying too.

They laid like that for a long time. Finally she turned over, grabbed his arm and pulled it under her neck again. “You weren’t helping get people off Earth, Will. They are taking mainly IA units. Gary thinks they are mercenaries from the Asian wars, working with IA. They bring a few families for appearances, but we watched some transports unload on Alpha Centauri, and they were all young, single, and they seemed to know each other. They’re moving to Alpha Centauri, and I think they will move them all to The Amber Planet. Exactly like you thought.”

He didn’t answer for a while, then, “We have to stop them.”

“No Will. Everything isn’t your responsibility. We need to get out of here. Gary is just waiting for me. I wanted to do it with Judy, but she has given up. So we need to get Gary to pick us up and get away, then find a way to get Judy.”

“What about the kids?” Will asked.

Penny sighed. Will would always be Will. She could never change him. So she changed the subject. “So, Silvia?”

“We’re good friends. I like her.”

“That’s all?”

“Well, we were in that warehouse all day. And we didn’t think we were going to live through it. And…” He didn’t finish.

“And, you had sex with her. You’re not even fifteen and you’ve hooked up with two girls. I don’t know if I love you or hate you.”

“You love me.”

“Yeah, but I want to hate you sometimes,” She elbowed him in the ribs. Then she did it again, harder.

“Are you going to keep hitting me, Penny?”

She laughed and elbowed him again, then he laughed. They could be back home, lying in one of their beds when they were younger, laughing and talking. It was a good moment for the two of them.

“I feel guilty. About Nin,” he confessed.

“Yeah, I know how you feel,” She said. “I did the same thing with Vijay. I was mad at mom and you and Judy and just drove off in the Chariot to his apartment and messaged him to come outside and he got in and we spent the night there. But I felt so bad about Clark.”

“What did he say? I assume you told him.”

“Yeah, Clark is like you. Too nice for his own good. But he says he’s going to be in space, and it wouldn’t be fair to me to tell me what I could and couldn’t do.”

“So…in the Chariot?”

“Yeah.” She laughed. “I had done it with Vijay before and it was OK. And it was really good with Clark. But in the Chariot it was the best. I guess it was kind of crazy and just impulsive and everything.”

He laughed. “I get it,” He said, thinking about Silvia in the warehouse on the stack of lumber, Jeeps driving by outside, and everyone searching for them.

“But about Nin, Will,” Penny said. “I don’t think you should feel guilty. You’re young. We’re both young. It’s not like we are only going to have sex with one person the rest of our lives. And at your rate…” She laughed again.

He grinned and said, “But I do love Nin, Penny. I mean, I will never forget the day I woke up in the room and saw her there. I fell in love immediately with her and I don’t think I will ever stop loving her.”

“Well, then we need to find a way to get back so you can see her again.” She threw her arm around him and they fell asleep and didn’t wake up until they heard helicopters.


	33. Chapter 33

There were two knocks on the door, then it was pushed open. The guard looked in at Judy, lying on the bed, then stepped back and Don was there again.

Judy frowned at him. She was still pissed.

“Something’s going on,” Don said. “They are scrambling helicopters from all over the base.”

She sat up. “It’s probably just the smugglers. There was a lot of activity yesterday.”

“Maybe,” he said. “But do you really think losing a Chariot would make them do all this? I bet there’s thirty attack helicopters and a lot of transports. Weird thing is, I didn’t see any soldiers getting on the transports.”

“Would they be getting soldiers from somewhere else? I’m just thinking about what Penny said. On Alpha Centauri, IA was moving everything to a different base. There are a few IA officers on this base, but most of the soldiers are regular military. Do you think there is more IA somewhere?”

“Here’s another thought, Judy. I’ve only seen this type of activity a few times. And in every time it was because of one person.”

“Will? No. I can’t start believing he is alive. I will never get over what happened to him, but I’ve at least prepared myself. If I start thinking he’s alive Don, when I know he isn’t...”

“Did you try to reach him on the LFR?” He asked.

“Yeah, every minute for the first week until I fell asleep. Then I would wake up and try again. And then…”

Don pressed the call number of Will’s LFR into his wrist radio. He waited but there was no response. He sat down on the bed beside Judy. Pressed the call numbers again.

She looked at him, “Don, I’m sorry about yesterday.”

He smiled and put an arm around her. “Not as sorry as I am for saying no, I guarantee you.” He kept pressing the call numbers.

  
  


  
Penny and Will sat up in bed. “What’s happening?” He said.

They heard the door open in the outer office, then the door to the bedroom pushed open. Silvia was standing there. “Helicopters. They’re everywhere. I think they’re coming in.”

Will and Penny jumped up and followed her out and down the stairs, back into the room and glass office where Tom and Billy were with some of the older kids. Fernando and the twins were there with Adrian.

“What’s happening?” Will asked.

“We don’t know,” Billy answered. “There’s been fly-overs lots of times, but this is different. There are too many. And they seem to be everywhere.”

“They’re coming in,” Silva said.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Mike said. “They know the area is contaminated.”

“They are coming in! I’ve been saying for two years this would happen! That’s what’s happening!” Adrian walked over and took her hand.

“But the whole area…” Mike started.

“There’s no contamination,” Will said.

“What are you talking about?” Tom asked.

“Silvia’s been right all along,” Will said. “They did this. There was a virus, but I don’t think there was ever a dirty bomb. And they created the virus. But the area is no more contaminated than the river was. And they know it.”

“Then why now? Why are they coming in now?” Mike asked.

“For me,” Will said.

“No!” Penny said. She knew Will was going to do what he always did. Sacrifice himself.

“Who are you?” Tom asked.

He just stared back at them.

Then the door flew open and a boy was standing there. “They’re landing. Up on seventh. Letting out a bunch of guys dressed in black. They have lasers. There’s hundreds of them. Maybe more.”

“We have to get to the tunnels,” Tom said. “Maybe make it to the river and get out.”

“A hundred seventy kids?” Billy asked.

“Do we have a choice?” His friend asked him.

“Yes,” Will said.

“No, W…Randy,” Penny said. “You aren’t giving yourself up.”

“No you aren’t,” Silvia agreed. “It wouldn’t matter. They have planned this for years. Probably longer than we even know. Whatever good you thought you would do turning yourself in wouldn’t matter. They would still do this. We need to get out of here if we can, and you need to go with us.”

“She’s right,” Fernando said.

“So what are we waiting for?” Billy said. He looked at Tom. “Abandon Ship. Everyone knows their role. We meet in the lobby and Tom leads us through the tunnels. Now.”

One of the kids stuck his head out into the other room where kids had been gathering. “Abandon Ship!” he announced and suddenly everyone was in motion. He should have known the two friends would have a plan for this as well, Will thought.

Fifteen minutes later the lobby was full downstairs, with kids backed up the stairwell. The older kids had the smaller ones by the hands. There was no yelling and no crying. Just silence from everyone. Will thought about the Dal and how their children were trained. These kids had grown up in a totally different environment. Most of them had come from poor neighborhoods, with less opportunity than he and his sisters had grown up with. But still, they had roofs over their heads, food, television and video games. But when it all ended, they adapted. Will looked at Billy and Tom again, standing near the door at the front of the room. Heroes, he thought again. And no one would ever know their names.

“OK,” Billy announced. “We,ve drilled this over and over. Ten at a time. Follow Tom across the street. There’ll be kids to lead you down the tunnels. Whatever you hear, don’t look back. Keep going. Stick to the plan.”

They waited. The helicopters seemed to be going by every couple of minutes, lights shining down in to the city. It was late morning, but visibility in the orange smog was bad enough to offer some cover unless a helicopter was lighting the street.

When there were no helicopters near, they started moving. Will and Penny stood with Silvia and Fernando and the twins at the side of the room. Billy saw them and yelled over the heads of the other kids, “You guys need to go. Once at the river, you’re going to have to lead us.”

Then he yelled to the kids in the crowded lobby. “Hey, let them move up.”

A path opened and Will, Penny and Silvia moved to the front of the lobby. Adrian was holding his sister’s hand. The twins were with them.

“I’m waiting and bringing up the rear,” Fernando said. “I’ll make sure no kid is left behind.”

”No,” Billy said. “Stay with your friends.”

”No. You and Tom need to keep the kids moving. I’m going last.” Fernando began making his way toward the back of the lobby.

Will watched this, thinking, I haven’t done anything that these kids wouldn’t have done in my place.

They pushed to the front. There was a boy waiting at the door, looking up the street, then down the other way. A light flashed a block up and he said, “Go!”

They ran across the street into another building where Mike was waiting. A girl was standing with him. Will noticed it was the girl who was always on guard holding the lantern. “Kim will lead you,” Mike said. “I’ll wait for the next group.”

They followed the girl through winding tunnels for twenty minutes, They were far enough underground that they couldn’t hear what was going on outside. Finally, Will recognized the tunnel leading to where Tom’s kids lived. Kim led them into the large ball room. There were thirty or so kids sitting around the room. They were all quiet, just waiting. They leaned against the wall and Penny reached out and took Will’s and they waited. 

Will watched as the room filled with scared children. He turned to his sister. “Penny.”

“Don’t even say it,” She answered. “You’re not giving yourself up again!” Then, “What’s buzzing?”

“What?” Then he felt it. “This.” He reached in his pocket and took out the LFR. He stared at it as it buzzed. He looked at Penny.

“It’s Judy,” She said.

Will pushed the button three times.

  
Don pressed the call signal again…waited. Again…waited. He was sitting with Judy on the bed, their legs stretched out, heads against the wall. He pressed it again…waited.

He started to enter the numbers again, then three beeps came through the speaker. He looked at Judy. They both sat straight up. He pressed the numbers, waited. Three beeps came back.

“I’m using Morse.” He typed in several keys, waited.

Several beeps came back. He looked at Judy. “It’s Will. Penny’s with him.”

“Jesus. She was right Don! She was right!”

Don thought she was going to fall apart, she looked crushed. Instead she stood and picked up the lamp from the side of the bed and stood behind the door.

“Call that Goddamn guard,” she said.

When the message came back, Penny began calling in to her radio to try to reach her sister. “No signal down here,” She said.

“It’s Don, he’s with Judy.”

“How can they help us?” Penny asked.

“I don’t know. But at least they know where we are. They’ll track us on GPS.”

It took an hour for all of the kids to get there. The large ballroom was full. Tom, Billy, and Fernando walked up to them. “We’re ready,” Tom said. “We need to get to the river. Down this hall and up a flight of stairs and we’ll be in the lobby. Across the street and into the building on the corner, down one more short tunnel and we’ll come out by the 4th Street bridge two blocks from the river. Mike will lead you until you come out by the bridge then you guys lead.”

The kids stood. “OK,” Billy announced to the room. “We’re following these guys now. They are taking us to the river. It isn’t contaminated like we were told. They have been living there for a year. They have a way out. So they’ll go first, move in your same groups ten at a time. Stay quiet and stay close.”

Fernando looked at his friends. “Silvia, you lead them at the river. I’m bringing up the rear again.” 

They made their way down the hall and up a flight of stairs and were inside the hotel lobby. They hurried over to the glass door and looked outside. They were several blocks from downtown now, and there were no helicopters here. The streets looked empty. “OK,” Billy said, looking back at the kids in the lobby, the line leading down the stairs and into the tunnel below. “Group one, follow Mike and Silvia. We need to cross this street and go in the building on the corner. The tunnel picks up beneath that, and from there we can make it to the river.”

Mike stuck his head out the door, then ran in to the street followed by the others. Suddenly there was a helicopter overhead, and lights illuminated them. “Stop running and you won’t be hurt,” they heard over a speaker from above.

“Shit!” Mike said. They stopped in the middle of the street.

Silvia looked up. She was still carrying the laser rifle. She aimed and fired, and the helicopter took a direct hit and started smoking as it flew away over the buildings.

“Come back!” Tom was standing in the lobby door, holding it open for them. They turned and ran back in. Then laser fire blew the glass out of the door. The street was filled with the soldiers dressed in black.

They all dove to the floor. Silvia and Penny were the only ones with lasers. Silvia crawled to the window and started firing back. Penny just looked at hers, and Tom ran up and took it from her and jumped down beside Silvia and started firing.

Billy jumped down beside them. “Give me the gun, Silvia.” He said.

“Get your own fucking gun,” She said.

“Silvia, you have your brother to think about. Give me the gun and get back down the tunnel.”

“Silvia,” Adrian said. He was sitting between Will and Penny on the floor.

She looked at Billy and handed him the laser. “Don’t fucking miss,” She said to him.

The street was full now, and the laser fire kept them all on their stomachs in the lobby. Tom looked at Billy, “Shit, we need to get across the street!”

The two boys opened fire out the window, then ducked down again as more laser fire was directed at the lobby. Will and Penny and the others stayed on the floor, the rest of the kids were still in the stairwell leading back down the hall, waiting to see what to do.

Then there were helicopters above them, and laser fire filled the room. Tom and Billy began pushing the kids in the lobby back toward the stair well.

Will stood up. “No!” Penny grabbed his hand.

“What are you doing?” Billy said.

“I can stop them,” He said.

“They will kill you before you can even tell them who you are,” Silvia said.

Tom looked at her.

Then there were explosions above them and helicopters were falling out of the sky. The kids ducked as one of them crashed just outside the lobby. Another crashed into the building they were in and they all ducked as glass and plaster fell around them. Will sprinted to the window. “No Will!” Penny yelled.

“Will?” Tom asked.

“Someone shot them down,” Will said. He was looking up into the sky.

They all jumped to the floor as more laser fire came into the lobby. Penny ran to his Will’s side. Then Billy and Tom were there. “More soldiers,” Tom said. They were coming down the street from the other direction. Hundreds of them.

Tom pushed open the broken glass door and laid on his stomach and opened fire. Billy crouched above him and fired over his head. Suddenly, Will realized he was watching two best friends, playing a video game like they had been doing for years. Working in tandem.

Then there was a noise above and they looked up. “A ship of some kind,” Tom yelled.

Will got up from the floor to look out the window. A space pod was coming out of the orange sky. The soldiers in the street had stopped moving forward. They were a block away, watching the pod, wondering if it was friend or foe.

Penny came and stood by her brother. Silvia joined them, Adrian holding her hand. Then Mike and the twins ran up, and some of the kids trapped in the stairway. Everyone’s eyes were on the space pod as it landed. A hatch door opened, and a ramp slid out. Don West walked out with a laser rifle. Judy followed him, a laser pistol in each hand. “Judy!” Will yelled.

She turned and looked at her brother. There was both joy and relief on her face. Then Robot walked down the ramp. He was in humanoid form. He turned and looked at the kids in the lobby. They were all staring at him through the broken plate glass window. Only Will and Penny had ever seen a robot before.

“Danger, Will Robinson,” Robot said. Everything seemed to freeze, and the kids turned to see who the robot was looking at. It was their friend Randy. Adrian looked up at him and his mouth dropped open.

“Randy Carter my ass, ” Tom said, grinning at Will.

Then Robot’s face shield turned bright red. He changed into battle form while the kids watched in amazement. Robot looked down the street. There were hundreds of soldiers there now, still wondering what to do when Robot opened fire. Judy and Don fired on them as well, then made their way to the lobby where the kids were.

Judy ran in the lobby and grabbed Will in her arms. They didn’t speak, they just held each other, then Judy reached out and pulled Penny in.

Don put his arms around them. “Damn Robinsons. At least you’re not boring.”

”I want boring,” Penny mumbled into Don’s neck.

Judy pulled back then said, “We stole a Jeep and got off the base and called Gary and he picked us up. Landed the Jupiter 2.0 right in the middle of the Santa Monica Freeway. He and Clark are up there now, fighting off the helicopters.”

The soldiers in the street had retreated and disappeared and the firing stopped above them. Everything grew quiet.

Robot had stopped his attack. He looked toward the kids, then turned back in to humanoid form. Will ran outside and wrapped his arms around his friend. Robot’s face shield had turned a warm white.

Adrian ran out to them. “Adrian!” Silvia yelled after him.

“He’s safe,” Penny said. She walked out to join her brother. Silvia followed her outside, along with Don and Judy, then the other kids that were gathered in the lobby.

“So, you’re really Will Robinson?” Adrian said, looking up at Will, then at Robot.

“Say hi to Adrian, Robot,” Will said. “He’s a friend.”

Robot looked down at the boy, then kneeled down on one knee. “Adrian. Friend.” He put a hand on the boy’s chest.

“Wow!” Adrian said. He looked back at his sister who had come up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Randy Carter,” Tom said, looking at Will. “I knew you were full of shit.” He was grinning at him.

“Judy, these are my friends,” Will said.

She looked around at the kids, and the kids that were now coming out of the staircase to look out the broken window at the large blue robot standing in the street. “Well, you sure don’t seem to have trouble making friends anymore,” She said, as she put an hand on his neck.

Will said, “This is my sister Judy and my friend Don. And this is Robot.”

Then they heard jets and fire above. “They scrambled the Phantoms,” Don said. “Clark’s going to have his hands full. He can’t take all of them.”

Suddenly they were under fire again. The soldiers had come back in the street a block down. The kids ran back inside the lobby, and Don and Judy crouched beneath the window and returned fire, joined by Tom and Billy. The others took cover on the floor.

Robot had changed back into battle form and was returning fire. Helicopters began landing in the street the other direction, and soldiers were pouring out and opening fire. They were all dressed in black. “You were right Judy. They picked the IA soldiers up somewhere else,” Don yelled.

Robot stood in the middle of the street firing, but he was in a crossfire now.

Another helicopter crashed into the building above them, and glass and concrete tumbled into the street. Ceiling tiles fell from above, covering the children in debris.

“This building’s going to come down on top of us.” Tom yelled. Will saw Tom look at Billy. “Crash and burn,” he said. Billy grinned at him.

“Randy…Will…Can you get your big blue friend to just concentrate his fire on those behind him?” Tom yelled.

“What are you going to do?” Will asked the boy.

“Can you do it?”

Will crept up between Don and Judy, who were both still firing.

“Robot!” Will yelled. “That way!”

Robot couldn’t hear him over the laser explosions. Will concentrated, connected with his friend, and could see through his shield. He turned, facing the soldiers piling out of the helicopters behind him. Robot opened fire with all four appendages. He destroyed three helicopters before they could unload the troops, then concentrated his fire on the soldiers who had already gathered in the street.

“Judy, and Don!” Billy yelled. “Keep firing the other way down the street, cover us.”

“What are you doing?” Judy yelled back. They were just kids.

Don and Judy directed their laser fire down the block to cover the two boys, and Billy and Tom ran out to the street. Billy crossed to the opposite side, keeping his head low as he ran.

Tom looked at his brother who was crouching beside Will and Penny. “I love you, Mike.”

“Tom!” Mike yelled.

Tom was looking at Will now. “Get the kids out of here. Don’t let them die.”

“How Tom?”

He just grinned at him. “You’re Will fuckin Robinson, you can do it.” Then he was gone.

Will ran to the door with Mike. Tom was making his way down the street, crouching behind wrecked cars, hiding in the doorways of buildings, peeking out to fire at the troops in the road. Billy was doing the same on the other side. Will could see Billy grinning and he knew Tom was as well. They were just playing a video game. Maybe in their heads they were thirteen, back home in Billy’s bedroom, playing Call of Duty, waiting for Billy’s mother to finish dinner. Then it dawned on Will, they had planned this all along. Save as many kids as they could for as long as they could, and when they saw it was all over, go out in a blaze of glory, buying time for the kids to escape if they could. Crash and burn Tom had said. That was the signal.

“Everyone!” Will yelled, “Across the street. Don’t look back and don’t stop! Follow Mike into the building and down the hall. Don’t’ let go of the little ones.”

Mike ran across the street, and Silvia pulled Adrian with her, the twins following, then the kids in the lobby sprinted out the door, and the others kept running up from the stairs, following them across the street into the building on the corner. Judy and Don had stepped out on to the sidewalk and were firing down the road, still trying to protect Billy and Tom as they made their way toward the soldiers, the two boys drawing most of the fire.

Will and Penny stood at the doors holding them open, and yelling for the kids to keep running. Finally Fernando ran up the stairs. “That’s all of them,” he yelled as he sprinted out the door and across the street.

“Go!” Judy had stopped firing and was looking at Penny and Will. Will was just standing, looking down the street. He could see Billy half a block down, hiding behind a car, but he couldn’t see Tom. Then there was an explosion and he was thrown into the middle of the street as the lobby they had been in collapsed.

“Will! Will!” He heard his sisters calling him, then Don. Someone was dragging him. He wanted them to stop, but he couldn’t talk.

  
  


  
“I’ve been trying to contact you for weeks,” the voice said.

“I thought I was dead,” Will said. “But unless we’re both dead, I guess I’m not.”

“I think it was close. I felt it. That’s never happened before. I needed to talk to you.”

“They tell me you don’t exist,” Will answered.

“I know. But I do.”

“Why did you need to talk to me?” Will asked his counterpart.

“You were right, there was a reason they were in such a hurry with you. I read my mother’s files.”

“You did something wrong?” Will was in pain, but he was amused.

“I’m becoming more like you. Less like me.”

“So, what did you discover?” Will asked.

His counterpart told him what he had found, buried in the unmarked file.

“Will, we can stop it,” The voice said.

Will was slow to answer. “You would do that?” He finally asked.

“You know I would. My entire world has prepared me to do what I must do for the common good. And your’s has prepared you for the same. Your parents, your sisters. Because of them, you can do what you must.”

“It’s the only thing I couldn’t imagine,” Will replied. “For their entire lives my family will always question what I did. Penny will never forgive me. And Judy will hate me forever.”

The voice was silent now.

“But…I can make things right.”

His counterpart didn’t respond. “Now you remain quiet,” Will said.

“I cannot make this decision for you Will.”

Will didn’t respond for several minutes. He was thinking about what it would all mean. For him, of course, but for his family too. For his sisters. Then: “I have no choice. And you knew I would do this, didn’t you?”

“I am you Will.”


	34. Chapter 34

“Will! Will!” Judy was leaning over him. There was laser fire all around.

“Don can you get him?” Penny was shouting.

Will felt his body being pulled up. Then he was over Don’s shoulder and being carried to the corner building across the street. “Don, I’m OK” Will said. “I’m OK. Let me down.”

“Will!” Penny said. She was running beside Don, a hand on her brother’s back.

He could see her feet and Judy’s as he was carried upside down over Don’s shoulder. Then he was lowered, and they were in the lobby in the building across the street. Judy and Penny sat beside him, Don knelt in front, his laser aimed at the window where Robot stood firing in every direction.

Will expected to see bodies all over the lobby but there weren’t any.

“Silvia and Adrian?” Will asked.

“Here Will!” Will looked behind him, down the stairs where Silvia knelt, covering her brother’s head, as plaster fell from the ceiling above. Fernando and the twins were on the steps below them, and Mike further down. The stairway was packed with children cowered against the wall.

Penny had her arms around him. Judy was wiping blood off his face. “Will, are you OK?” Judy asked.

“Yes. Give me your radio.”

“I don’t have it. IA took it,” She said.

“Penny?” He said.

“Why?” His sister asked. “What are you going to do?”

“I have to call this off,” he said.

“How?” Penny asked.

“They need me,” Will said. “But they don’t know I’m here. I need to let them know.”

Penny and Judy looked at each other. They knew their brother enough to wonder what exactly he was about to do. Whatever it was, they knew he would suffer for it.

“They’re children,” Will said. “A lot of them just little kids. Tom told me to get them out of here. I have to do it.”

Penny held her wrist up to him. They ducked as there was an explosion above their heads. “I can’t hear up here,” Will said. “Take it off and hand it to me.”

Penny looked at Judy, then took her radio off and handed it to him. He pushed himself up, and Penny and Judy helped him stand. “I’ll be back in a second.” He made his way down the stairs, putting his hands on the shoulders of the children gathered in the hallway. He looked down and smiled at Silvia as he passed by.

At the bottom of the staircase, he turned his face in to the wall so the kids gathered around couldn’t hear what he said, then he spoke into the radio. “Whatever you want,” Will said. “Call it off, but I have a couple of demands.”

“You always do, Will,” the man on the other end said.

Will made his way back up the staircase to where his sisters sat behind Don, who was still firing out the window. By the time he was at the top of the stairs, the firing outside had stopped. He put his hand on Don’s shoulder. “It’s over Don.”

Penny and Judy stood up beside him. “What did you do Will?” Judy asked him.

“I stopped them. It’s over. Let’s go outside.”

They helped him to the street where Robot still stood. The soldiers had stopped and were backing away. Will looked down the block. On the near side of the street, half way down, he saw Billy’s body sprawled on the sidewalk. Across the street he saw Tom lying half in the street, half on the sidewalk. As he stood there, Mike walked out the door and slowly made his way up the street to his brother’s body. Several of the kids followed him.

Will walked over and hugged Robot. His friend had changed back into humanoid form. Behind him was the space pod, but a helicopter had crashed into it and Will took one look at it and realized it wasn’t going anywhere. “Robot, you have to leave. They can’t capture you. We’ll tell Gary and he’ll pick you up, alright?”

“Danger,” Robot said.

“Not for me. Not now. But danger for you. They can’t get their hands on you. Gary needs you to get back, OK? Can you meet him where he landed and picked up Judy and Don.”

“Yes, Will Robinson.”

Will had handed Penny’s radio to Judy and she was calling in to it, “Jupiter 2.0. Come in.”

“Roger,” Gary replied. “You guys OK? And remember, they’re listening.”

“Yes,” Judy said. “Can you go back to where we landed? Robot will meet you there.”

“What about you?”

Judy looked at her brother, not knowing what he had in mind, but she trusted him. “We’ll be fine. You need to get back to Alpha Centauri before they get Robot.”

“Roger,” Gary said. “Be careful.”

Will turned and looked at Don. “I have to go somewhere with my sister’s Don. Can you take care of the kids?”

“Take care of them? How?”

“You’ll see. It’ll be OK. Just stay with them, please. They’re going to come and take them out of here, but the kids will be be scared. And Tom and Billy are gone.” He looked down the street where Mike was kneeling by his brother’s body. Across the street, other kids had gathered around Billy’s. “Tell the kids not to run. They’ll be fine now, but they need an adult they can trust. They know you’re my friend.” Then he hugged him. “Thanks Don. Our family wouldn’t be the same without you.”

“Where are you going Will?”

“Just do this, please?”

Don looked at Judy and she nodded at him. “OK, take care of your sisters.” He smiled at Judy over Will’s head and she smiled back. He hugged Penny.

Will turned and looked back at Fernando and Silva and the twins. Adrian was holding his sister’s hand. He smiled at them. Looked at Silvia. “It’s all going to be OK now.”

He turned and looked down the street one more time where Mike was still kneeling beside his brother’s lifeless body. He took his two sisters by the hands and walked back inside the building then down the stairs, making his way past the kids, pulling Judy and Penny with him.

”Will, what about Tom and Billy?” Penny asked.

”Its too late,” He answered, without stopping. “They survived for two years. Then I came here.”

Penny and Judy looked at each other as they followed their brother. He seemed changed. Like the deaths of the two boys had been...enough. Like he was just done with it all.

As they walked past the children, Will spoke to them. “It’s over now. No one is going to hurt you. They’ll take care of you now. Listen to what Don tells you, Ok? He will take care of you.”

It took almost thirty minutes to get past all the kids in the hallway, then they came out to an empty street.

“Where are we going?” Judy asked.

“You’ll see,” he said. There were helicopters overhead, and Jeeps running up and down the streets still, but the firing was over. They walked down the middle of the road. Will stumbled, and his sisters grabbed him and put his arms over their shoulders and the three of them walked together.

Finally Penny said, “We’re getting the Chariot, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, we need to go somewhere,” He answered.

When they made it to the Chariot, Judy climbed in the driver’s seat. They had stopped asking Will where they were going. He had climbed in the passenger side, and Penny sat behind him. His head was leaned back against the seat. Penny’s hand was resting on his shoulder.

“Go back to the freeway Judy. Find where they went through fence, I’m sure there’s a place.” He started rubbing his temples.

“Do you have your medicine Will?” Penny asked.

“No.”

“My pack, Penny,” Judy said. She had tossed it in the seat next to Penny. Penny found the drugs, poured three pills in her palm, then handed them up to Will. She found Judy’s canteen in her backpack and leaned forward and lifted it to his lips for him to drink, taking the moment to care for him like she used to. She had a feeling those days were coming to an end. He seldom seemed like her little brother any longer. She was beginning to feel like his little sister.

Will smiled, feeling the same emotions as Penny. Things were changing and he wasn’t in a hurry for it. “Thanks, Penny.”

They drove back toward the freeway, and found Will was right, there were several places where the fence had been destroyed. They passed several military vehicles but no one tried to stop them. It really did seem to be over with Will’s one call.

They entered the freeway and drove for twenty minutes. When Will told Judy where to exit, she said, “Are we going home Will?”

He looked at her and smiled and reached over and took her hand. He reached back and put his other hand over Penny’s that was still on his shoulder. “We _are_ home,” he said.

Judy smiled at him and Penny squeezed his shoulder.

Judy followed his directions until she pulled up at the little park they had spent so much time in when they were growing up.

Will didn’t say anything, he just opened the door and climbed out. The Dairy Bar was a few meters away on the corner, and he started to walk toward it, but suddenly got a whiff of something rotten inside. He turned back and walked toward the bench.

Judy and Penny were still in the Chariot, watching Will. Judy looked back over her shoulder at Penny and the two sisters smiled at each other. This was their little brother. The soul of a much older man had always lived in him. The books he read, the music he listened to, the things he talked about had always had strong traces of his nostalgic nature. So many of his conversations started with, “Hey, you guys remember when…” Their father was much like this, and the rest of the family figured Will got it from him. They indulged him, seeing a certain sweetness in how he would cling to fond memories of the things they had shared.

Judy and Penny climbed out of the Chariot and joined Will where he was now sitting on the green bench. The paint was peeling in several places. It had been there at the edge of the park for as long as they could remember.

They sat on each side of him and put their arms over his shoulders.

“My best memories are of this place,” Will said. “Remember when we were really little and you used to bring us here, Judy? You would push us in the swings, then buy us ice cream cones.”

“Yeah,” she said. She was smiling at the memory. Her world had been destroyed when they told her Will had died. And then everything happened so fast when they found he was alive. Their escape from the base, and the battle in the city. For the first time she appreciated this nature in her little brother, his ability to look in to the past. Finally, she felt relaxed.

“Then Penny and I started coming here every day,” he said.

“We’d sit right here,” Penny added. “Sit here and drink root beer floats.” She was smiling too. “And back when they had tennis tournaments and the whole family would come at night and Judy would kick everyone’s ass.”

She looked past Will to her sister. “Was there anything you weren’t good at?” She teased.

“Yeah. I sucked at keeping us all together. You’re the world champion at that, Penny.” She smiled at her sister.

“Then why are we always apart?” Penny asked, her voice turning sad.

“It’s sure not your fault,” Will said. “Judy’s right. You’re always the one who brings us back together. You’re the one with the most hope, Penny. It’s not me.”

They sat in silence for a while, looking out at the overgrown park, all of them lost in their private memories of the place.

Then Will said, “I was always felt safe here. With you guys. You both took care of me. As long as you were there, I knew nothing would happen to me. When the robots took me, that’s what scared me more than anything. I was alone. My sisters weren’t with me.”

They both took his hands.

“I wanted us to be here again together. Like back then. When everything was good. When we were together. I wanted to feel safe again. With my big sisters.”

“I’m glad you brought us here, Will,” Judy said.

“Me too,” Penny agreed.

“When I took the hallucinogenic, in my vision I went back to the Valley. I was standing on our hill. Mine and Nin’s hill. And she was there. And I asked her how long I had been gone or something. And she said I had always been there. That we would always be there together. Of course I had left to Alpha Centauri, so I was confused about what she meant.

“But in Flight Training, Gary Sargent was talking about something Einstein said. He said that death meant nothing for physicists like him because he knew that past, present, and future are just illusions.” Will had a slight smile on his face.

“I think that’s what Nin meant. If that’s true, then we aren’t just sitting here together today, after all we’ve been through. We’re also here when I’m eight years old and you guys are twelve and fourteen. We’re sitting right here having ice cream cones, and we know we have to leave pretty soon cause dad’s getting back tonight and mom wants to have a party for him.”

Judy smiled. “I remember that day. That’s a nice thought Will. That time is like that. Everything is happening now, and we’re not passing from one moment to the next.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Because that means nothing is really ending. All of the happy memories only end in our minds. But on another plane…or something, they are still happening.”

Penny kissed him on the cheek. “Every time I’m afraid you’ve changed Will, you remind me you’re the same boy you’ve always been.”

“I love you guys so much,” Will said. They heard the emotion in his voice. They leaned their heads against his as he softly cried.

Then they heard helicopters overhead, and there were the sounds of vehicles down the block. Penny and Judy sat up and looked around, but Will just leaned his head back on the bench and closed his eyes.

“Will, is this Ok?” Penny asked.

Judy was standing now. She looked at her brother and was concerned. His eyes were still closed. “Will? Do we need to try and get away?” She knew it was too late, but she would do whatever he wanted. She instinctively knew it was her little brother who was in charge now.

Will opened his eyes, but he kept his head rested on the bench. “No, it’s OK,” he said. “Everything will be OK.” He slowly stood up, and Penny stood with him.

Two helicopters hovered above, their lights cutting through the thick air to illuminate the siblings who stood beside the bench, watching the line of military vehicles pull up in front of them.

Men started climbing out of Jeeps. They were dressed in black with no insignia, and all were armed. Hastings climbed out of a truck and walked toward them with several soldiers. He stopped a meter in front of them, looked at Will. “Well, nothing is ever easy with you, but you’re making the right decision Will. Everything will be alright now.” He looked at the men beside him. “Arrest them.”

Four of the soldiers walked up and turned Judy and Penny around and cuffed their hands behind their backs. They turned and looked at their brother. Hastings was standing beside him now, but no one was touching him.

“Will? What’s going on?” Judy asked.

“Will?” Penny said.

“I’m sorry.” He was looking at his two sisters through weary, defeated eyes.

Judy and Penny were both pushed into separate Jeeps, and soldiers climbed in beside them. As the Jeeps drove off they both looked at Will who was standing there, watching them. Hastings was beside him, a hand resting gently on their brother’s shoulder.


	35. Chapter 35

“And Jesus withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where he knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.’ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And in his anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.”  


-Matthew 26:41

Part III: The Doomed and Desperate Dreamer

Will walked down the corridor to the cafeteria. He had been isolated from everyone since he and his sisters had been picked up at the park. But now they were in space, and he was free to move about the ship until it was time to take them through the rift. He stood at the open door and looked in. The room was crowded, the tables almost full, this being the dinner hour. The kids from the city were the only ones here now. They had been kept separate from the other passengers, as the others were all IA. They had finished eating. Will watched the faces of the children and listened to their exclamations as platters full of cookies and pitchers of milk were being brought out. One of Will’s conditions. The easiest one for IA to accommodate. Will smiled. He was incredibly sad, but he was able to take this moment and appreciate the joy on the faces of these children.

There were one hundred seventy three kids from the city, both Tom and Billy’s groups, as well as the River kids, all one now. Once at the medical facility they had all been tested, but the virus was apparently dormant. Still, they were vaccinated, as were all the passengers on the Resolute 2.

"Hey! It's Randy!" Someone yelled. All of the children looked toward the door where he was standing. 

“No, it’s Will Robinson!” A younger voice responded, and Will looked over at the table where Adrian was out of his chair, smiling at him. Then everyone in the room was standing and clapping. Embarrassed at the attention, Will made his way to the table where Silvia and Adrian were with Fernando and the twins and Mike. He saw Tre was there as well. Her face was bruised, and she had a bandage across her nose, her eyes had dark circles, as if she wore a mask. But she was smiling. He had demanded to be taken to the hospital as soon as Hastings brought him to the base, where he found her in a room by herself. She had cried and apologized for telling IA where they were, but Will had just held her and said there was nothing to forgive.

The kids greeted him as he walked across the room, and Silva hugged him when he got to the table with the others. A boy from a table nearby brought a chair over to him so he could sit with his friends.

None of them other than Tre had seen him since he had left with his sisters. “How, Randy? I mean, Will,” Mike said. “How did you stop it and get us on board?”

“Your brother told me I had to, Mike. I couldn’t let him down.” Everyone grew silent. Will reached over and squeezed Mike’s shoulder. “Your brother was a hero. What he and Billy did was…” he paused. He knew he was about to lose it. “I want people to know what they did.”

Mike smiled at him. "Tom knew from the beginning that you were more than you said. He...really liked you Randy...Will. I wish..." He stopped talking, not wanting to cry.

"Mike, I won't forget what he and Billy did. I promise you," Will said as he clapped him on the back. 

“They just took us all because you told them to?” Fernando asked.

“Of course. He’s Will Fuckin Robinson,” Adrian said.

“Adrian!” Silvia said while the others at the table cracked up.

“That’s what Tom, said!” Adrian protested.

Silvia just smiled at her little brother, then looked at Will. “Yeah, he’s Will Fuckin Robinson.” She grinned. Then her face grew serious. “So what did Will Fuckin Robinson have to give up?”

The others all watched him, waiting for an answer. “Nothing I hadn’t given up a long time before,” he said, and sighed.

“So what are they going to do with us?” Mike asked.

“There are families on Alpha Centauri who will take you in. There’s schools. Blue skies. It’s a new world. And you belong there like everyone else.”

They were all quiet for a minute, then Jason said, “We won’t be together?”

“I don’t know Jason. But you don’t have to lose each other. You guys can decide that. Decide that you never lose each other.”

They looked around the table at each other, then Tre said, “Thank you Randy. For everything.”

Then they all started thanking him. And they all called him Randy. He knew they would always see him as Randy. He liked that. When he left he wanted to leave Will Robinson behind. Be someone else. And maybe he had. At least with these kids.

“I’ve got some things to do, but I’ll check back on you guys,” he stood, and they all watched him walk away.

“Randy.” He turned back. Silvia had followed him. He waited for her. “Where’s Penny and Judy? And Don?”

“They’re OK.” He didn’t offer any more information and she decided not to pry. But she knew something was going on.

“I hope whatever you had to do was worth it, Randy,” she said.

He reached out and touched her hair very gently. “It was worth it.” He smiled at her.

“Because they can’t let us live,” she said. “We know what happened.”

“I planned for that, Silvia. Everything’s going to be OK for you guys.”

“And for you?” She asked.

He just looked back at her with silent eyes. The thousand yard stare, she thought. She ran up and hugged him. She let him go and quickly walked back to her friends. Will watched her for a minute, then turned and left the room.

He knocked twice. There was no answer. He pressed his palm against the scanner and the door unlocked. He walked inside. Penny was on a bed in the corner. The room was small, but comfortable, with a desk, a small table, and to the side, a private bathroom. She just stared at him. Her face was emotionless.

He had a tablet with him. “There are a lot of books on it,” he said as he sat it on the table.

“I don’t want any fucking books Will. I want to know what you’re doing.”

He walked over and sat beside her on the bed. “I’m fixing everything Penny. Everything I caused.”

“By working with IA? I mean, _really_ working with them?”

“We can’t beat them Penny. They control everything now.”

“What are you doing, Will?”

“I told you. I’m fixing everything.”

“I know what that means. It means you’re fixing it for everyone but yourself.”

“We’ll be in space a few days, then Alpha Centauri. You should stay there.”

“I have a choice? I thought I was their prisoner? _Your_ prisoner?”

“Just until it’s over Penny. But Mom and Dad are back on the Amber Planet, so I’ll leave it up to you. We’ll leave you where you want.”

“You’re going to the Amber Planet, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“I go where you go.”

He looked at her. His face sad. “If that’s what you want Penny. I love you; you know. If you ever question that, I just want you to know. I love you.”

He started to stand but she quickly leaned up and grabbed him in her arms and they held each other. "I know you do Will," she cried into his neck. After a while he let her go and left the room without saying anything else.

  
Will walked down the hall and knocked on another door. When there was no answer he unlocked it, opened it and walked in. The room was identical to the other one, but Judy was sitting on the bed in this one. As soon as he opened the door she stood and ran to him. For a brief second he thought she was going to attack him, but she grabbed him in her arms and hugged him.

“Judy…”

“No. Don’t talk to me. Not yet. Just come sit.” She took his hand and led him to the bed and sat on it and pulled him down. She kept her arms around him, her head leaning on his shoulder. “I thought you were dead. This time I thought you were really dead.”

After a long time she said, “When I found you on the Jupiter 2, after you had been gone for seven months, I stopped in the doorway of your bedroom and just…just couldn’t believe you were there. I was so happy and so scared at the same time. Your breath was so shallow I didn’t know if you were alive, and if you were I didn’t know what you would be like. If you would even know me. But when you realized it was me and then just started crying and…you just wanted me to hold you…” She caught her breath. “I would have held you forever Will.”

He turned his body to her and just pulled her tight and hugged her. Neither of them said anything else. When he finally stood she said, “I don’t know what you’re doing Will. Only you know what you have planned. But I want you to know I trust you. Whatever it is.”

He walked to the door and turned around. “When the day comes that you no longer can say that Judy, I want you to remember that I never stopped loving you.”

Then he was gone.


	36. Chapter 36

John and Maureen had left the Valley and were back in the Jupiter 2. The Resolute 2 had made two revolutions and they hoped that their children would be back this time. It was due to return the week after they landed.

Ben had stayed back in the Valley looking for the Robot cave that Inanna's diary had described. It was hard for Maureen to leave, but she knew she had been much less of a mother than she had been a scientist, and needed to see how Will was. She and John planned to go back to the Valley once the Resolute left, and then maybe return to Alpha Centauri where Penny was. They still had no idea how they were going to get Will and Judy free of IA, and it seemed to be out of their hands.

Maureen was standing on the Flight Deck when she saw a Jeep driving across the field toward the Jupiter 2. “John,” she called.

He joined her. “Several people in it,” he said. “Let’s go meet them.” He walked over to a cabinet and took down a laser rifle and they walked outside.

The Jeep pulled up thirty meters from the ship and Will got out of the passenger side.

“Will!” John said.

Their son smiled, then he was running toward them. They ran to meet him and the three of them stood, hugging in front of the Jupiter 2, as four soldiers climbed out of the Jeep, and stood watching.

“Will, are you OK?” Maureen asked.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Where’s Judy?” John asked.

“She’ll be here soon. Don too. And Penny’s with us.”

“Penny! You brought her back from Alpha Centauri?” Maureen asked.

“Sort of,” he said.

“I can’t believe we’re all going to be together tonight,” John said.

Will didn’t answer that, he just said, “it’ll be a couple hours before they’re here. Can we just go hang out for a while?” The boy knew that once the others arrived things would never be the same again.

“Of course,” Maureen said. She looked back where the guards were now leaning on the Jeep. She had an uneasy feeling she couldn’t explain. But Will was back and he seemed like his old self, so she smiled as the three of them walked toward the Jupiter 2.

They sat at the round table in the Hub, talking about Earth. As soon as they had sat down, Will said, “Remember when we went to Yellowstone that one time and Judy and Penny and I went hiking in the morning before you guys woke up?”

He told them the story of the bison and how they had just avoided being killed. That story led to another and another. They sat and exchanged memories of the many trips they had taken, Judy’s track meets, hikes, trips to their grandmother’s house in the country. They laughed and talked. There were no unhappy stories, no tears.

After a couple of hours, Will received a call on his radio. “Will, they’re here.”

“OK,” he responded.

He looked up at his mother and father. His expression had changed, and Maureen had the uneasy feeling again. “Let’s meet them,” Will said, and stood.

When they walked outside they saw a convoy coming across the field. There were dozens of Jeeps in a line, but instead of driving up in front of the ship, they split up and surrounded the Jupiter 2. Soldiers dressed in black got out of the Jeeps, laser rifles across their chests.

“Will, what’s going on?” John asked.

“It’s OK, Dad. Don’t do anything. They’re aren’t going to hurt anyone.”

Then Judy and Penny climbed out of one of the Jeeps, and Don got out of one behind them. Their hands were bound behind their backs.

“Will?” Maureen said. “What is this?”

“Mom, they’re OK. No one hurt them.”

They were marched up to the family. All of them were looking at Will. They looked more puzzled than anything.

The soldiers pushed them past Will up to where John and Maureen were standing. Four soldiers rushed past them into the Jupiter 2. “Hey,” John started to grab one of the soldiers.

“Dad, no,” Will said. “You can’t stop them.” John turn and looked back at his son.

Judy, Penny, and Don had their hands released. The family stood and looked at Will. The four soldiers came back from the Jupiter 2 and walked past them back to the Jeeps. They were carrying a laser rifle and two hand lasers they had taken from the ship. “They disabled the launch program,” Will said. “The ship is grounded. You have to stay here. They’ll guard you, but they won’t come on the ship. No one will get hurt.”

“What are you doing?” Penny asked. “Will. We’re your family. Talk to us.”

He looked at his family for a few seconds before answering. “I’m transporting IA here from Earth and from Alpha Centauri. All of them.”

“ _What? Why_?” Maureen asked. “They’ll destroy this planet. You know that. So many of these people fought for you.”

“Mom, we have no choice. We can’t win.”

“No Will. That’s not everything,” Judy said. “What are you doing?”

He stared at her without answering. Wondering what to tell her. Then he decided she had to know eventually. Here it comes, he thought. “I’m taking them to the robots. To where they are made. That’s what they’ve always wanted. I’m tired of fighting them.”

“That’s why they stopped the attack on the kids, isn’t it?” Penny said. “It’s the only thing that would have worked. They didn’t want those kids to live to tell everyone what happened. But they agreed to take them to Alpha Centauri, because…”

“Because it wouldn’t matter anymore,” Judy finished. She was staring at her brother. “They won’t care what anyone thinks because _this_ will be their world. And they’ll have the robots. And you. They’ll have everything they want.”

Will just stared back at his family.

“But Will, the Kur won’t let you,” Judy said. “They’ll fight you. To the death.”

“I hope not, Judy. They can’t win.”

“But they will. I know them. It’s their home. For thousands of years they guarded the mountains. Kept the balance. That’s what they exist for. They will never surrender, Will. You can’t do this!”

“I have no choice, they won. Can’t you see that, Judy? I’m tired. Tired of fighting them.”

She was walking toward him, but John and Don grabbed her arms. “ _Will, you can’t_. There’s thousands of them. They’ll fight to the death. All of them. The children. You will be what they think you are! You will be a murderer!”

Will couldn’t take it anymore. He turned and walked toward the Jeeps, hearing Judy’s shouts all the way. He got in the passenger side and said, “Drive. Just drive.”

The Robinson’s stood and watched the Jeep with Will drive off. The other Jeeps stayed where they were, the men surrounding the Jupiter 2. Judy was crying, and Maureen was holding her. “He can’t do this, Mom. He can’t do this.” Maureen turned her and walked with her toward the Jupiter.

John looked at Don and said, “Hastings wasn’t here. And as far as I could tell, no one else was giving orders either.”

“What are you getting at?” Don asked.

“Will was in charge.” He turned and walked toward the Jupiter 2 and Don followed.

“Penny, let’s get inside,” John called over his shoulder. He didn't want to leave her out here with the soldiers surrounding the ship.

“Coming Dad.”

She stood there a few seconds longer, watching Will’s Jeep disappear across the field. “What game are you playing, little brother?” she said.


	37. Chapter 37

They first brought everything from Alpha Centauri. IA had kept the entire council imprisoned from the time they had arrested them, but they agreed that the Council would be released, and complete control would be turned over to them once the final trip to The Amber Planet was ready to go.

Will told IA that he wanted to be at the final meeting with the Council, but until then, he remained on the Resolute. It was a job to him. He would take them through the rift, wait until men and equipment had been brought aboard, then take them back through the rift to the Amber Planet. He didn’t disembark there either. He missed his family deeply, but he knew it would just make things harder on everyone for him to see them. He had already made his decision, and nothing would change that now.

Hastings estimated it would take three trips to bring all of the equipment from Alpha Centauri to the Amber Planet, but their real strength was on Earth. He told Will they had three battalions, a total of six thousand troops they could put in the field. “We need all of them,” Will had told him.

“For those cliff dwellers?” Hastings sounded doubtful. They were in a meeting with several IA commanders.

“I’ve been there,” Will answered. “No one fights the Kur in their mountains.”

“Intelligence is telling us the same thing,” one of the officers said. He was a Captain named Jespers. He had been in charge of the new IA facility on Alpha Centauri, but now was Hasting's 2nd in command. “No one on the planet even goes in those mountains. We need all the men we can get. Especially the way this kid wants to do this.”

“Be a little more respectful," Hastings said, looking at Will.

Jespers looked at the boy. "Sorry."

Will ignored him and walked from the room, telling Hasting's "I'm going to the clinic, then to bed." 

"Goodnight Will," Hastings said. 

Once he was gone, Jespers said, "You sure you trust him?"

"Am I sure?" Hastings replied. "That kid is always scheming. But maybe not as much as he used to. The Doctor at the Hospital thinks the implant is finally working. He's different than he was. And he has done everything he said he would since he called me from the City. We wouldn't have his family in control all in one place if it wasn't for him. So for now I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, we don't have a lot of choices. He's the only one who can give us what we have been trying to find for a long time."

"Since the Fortuna?" Jespers asked.

Hastings looked at the Captain. "Oh, since long before that, Captain."

Jespers looked at him puzzled, but Hastings walked from the room.

Will only did one thing to take his mind off it all. Every night he went to the clinic on board The Resolute 2 and they gave him three sleeping pills. Hastings had given them strict orders. Only three, and the boy had to take the pills in front of the nurse. He didn’t want the kid to save them up and try to end it all. The boy was on constant suicide watch. There was a guard with him at all times, and when he went to bed, the guard was stationed by his door in the hall, after thoroughly searching his room. There were cameras covering every inch of it as well as the bathroom next to it and someone was constantly monitoring them. Hastings wasn’t too concerned about Will doing anything, as long as they had the family. But suicide was always an easy way out. The nurse had told Hastings three sleeping pills were too many to give the boy, but they wouldn’t kill him. So Hastings gave the green light. What the fuck, if the kid wanted to tranquilize himself in to oblivion every night, he had earned it.

“This is great,” Will said.

They were gliding a meter above the ocean, the spray soaking Will’s counterpart as he pushed the PFU all out. The water was pitch black on this stormy night, but the rain had held out, and would for another hour, according to the weather sensor.

Will had been visiting every night. He would take the three sleeping pills, walk back to his room, lie down and wait until he was in a deep sleep, then he would be in his counterpart’s mind.

The boy had begun taking him all over the city in the PFU. There were few people out at this hour, and they would fly from the house on the cliff side, along the ocean, then over the city. Will was amazed that the entire City Center appeared to be made of glass.

“Weather proof,” the voice explained in his head. “And yet, not separate. I love to be down here when there is a storm. You can sit in a restaurant or walk through any store, and the storm is all around you. It’s incredible.” He felt Will’s smile. The boys weren’t just mirror images of each other, they shared many of the same thoughts and traits, including their love of rain and stormy days.

Tonight, he had brought Will out over the ocean because there was something he wanted him to see.

“There,” the boy pointed, forgetting for a second he didn’t have to point, Will was seeing through his eyes.

Ahead, where the surf broke, there were hundreds of dolphins, appearing to emit blue lights as they sliced through the waves.

“Wow!” Will said in his mind, causing the boy to say it aloud. This had happened before. A response in Will’s mind had caused the physical reaction in his counterpart. At first it had concerned the boy, but now when it happened he just felt more connected to Will.

“Bioluminescence! I have read about this,” Will said. “It used to happen on Earth before everything got so bad, but I didn’t think I would ever see it.”

They flew along the surf for another thirty minutes, following the school of dolphins. The boy could feel Will’s excitement. Finally, he turned toward the beach. Once above the sand, the boy hovered, then slowly landed. He took off the helmet and PFU and sat down on the sand. The beach was deserted.

“How are you doing?” the boy asked silently.

The boy’s mind picked up only blank thoughts for a few seconds, then, “I’m just a machine now. I take them from Alpha Centauri to The Amber Planet, then back. We have one trip left from Alpha Centauri now, and then they will have abandoned it completely. That’s one thing to check off the list.”

“And you haven’t seen your family?”

“No. I don’t know what I would say to them.”

“You are going to see them before…right?”

“Probably. It’s hard. It’s been easier to just keep focused on what we’re doing. But I have to see them at least one more time.”

“I’m sorry Will. At least I have my family. You’re right, it’s hard. But I can’t imagine what it would be like if I was alone.”

“I’m not alone,” Will thought. “At least once I take the pills and go to bed.”

“I know. I feel it too. I…I wait every night for you,” the boy thought. “I find myself wishing we had been able to contact each other our whole lives. It would have been less lonely sometimes.”

“Yeah,” will thought.

They sat for another twenty minutes, then the boy thought, “I guess we should head back. It will be raining in seven minutes.”

“So?” Will thought. They both felt the smile, and sat there waiting for the storm.

  
The last of the equipment was loaded on the Resolute 2, and transports had been taking the remaining soldiers aboard. The final transport was to leave in two hours, and the Intelligence Agency will have finally abandoned Alpha Centauri. Will was with Hastings, Jespers and two other IA officers when they went to the holding facility to meet with Council President Curry and Vice President, Victor Dhar.

The two men were brought to a conference room. They sat across the table from Will, Hastings and the IA agents.

The two didn’t pay much attention to the others in the room. They looked at Will. “Are you OK, Will?" Victor asked.

“I’m fine Victor, thanks.”

“What about your family?” He asked.

“Yes. They’ll be back in a few weeks, and things will get back to normal. Penny has to finish her last year in high school now. I’m sure Judy will be back at the hospital. And Vijay is OK?"

“Yes. They released him yesterday. Will, I don’t know what happened down there on Earth, but maybe you can tell us all some time.”

“When my sisters come back, they can fill you in. They were in the city with me at the end.”

“Will, are you coming back with them?” Mr. Curry asked.

“I’m with IA now,” he said. “I won’t be back.”

“Will…” Victor started.

“Enough,” Hastings interrupted. “We’re here to end this, so let’s move on. The Council is being released as we speak. We’re on our way to the transport, this was our last stop. So you two are free to go.”

Hastings and the IA officers stood, and Mr. Curry stood with them.

“I want to talk to Will alone for a minute,” Victor said.

“No…” Hastings started.

“That’s fine,” Will said. “Outside though. We don’t know who’s listening here.”

“I’m not going to allow…”

“You have no choice!” Will was right in Hastings face, and he yelled loud enough that the others in the room froze. “I have done everything you wanted! My family is under guard on the Jupiter 2. I have taken everyone you wanted to the Amber planted. I’m leaving with you and never coming back. What more do you want from me? Victor is a friend and he wants to talk to me alone. And I’m going to talk to him!”

They all just looked at Will. Finally Hastings said, “Fine. You have five minutes then we’re leaving.”

They all walked into the hall then out the front door where Victor and Will walked away from the others. Will leaned against an Ecar in the parking lot.

“Will, are you sure you’re OK?” Victor asked.

“As well as I can be,” Victor. “I haven’t seen my family. They don’t understand what I’m doing. But I’m just trying to fix it all.”

Victor put a hand on his shoulder. “Will, I will never forget when my family and I ran down to the room where the robots had been captured in the magnetic field. And your family was there. Penny and your mother were in tears. Your dad looked to be shell shocked. And they told me what you had done. It was hard for me to fathom. That you had given yourself up to the robots to save everyone else. I know that’s what you are doing now, Will. And I know I can’t stop you, but where does it end for you? You can’t carry all of this on your shoulders. You’re a fourteen year old boy.”

Will just looked down at the ground. “I think it really ended for me then Victor. When the robots took me. And that was a choice I made. I think, really, I have had a couple of years more than I should have. But what I’m doing now is just finishing the game I guess.” He looked up and there were tears in his eyes. “I’m just finishing what I started that day.”

Victor looked at him for a minute, then hugged him. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Will."

"Thanks Victor. Can you tell Vijay to watch out for my sister? Whether it is just as a friend...or whatever? Penny's been having a tough time and I'm afraid for her. Could you do that, please?" 

"Of course, Will."


	38. Chapter 38

Penny stood at the Flight Deck, looking out the window where Judy was sitting in one of the plastic chairs that they had left out near the fire ring. John had not built a fire since IA had surrounded the Jupiter 2 and made them all prisoners.

Judy was almost impossible to talk to these days. Penny had tried to speak to her about Will several times, but her sister would stop her and say, “I don’t want to hear it!”

Penny sighed. She walked outside and pulled up a chair close to her.

“They just sit on those Jeeps and stare at us,” Judy said. Looking at the black-clad IA soldiers. The Jeeps were about fifty meters away from the ship, surrounding it on all sides. “I just stare back.”

“Judy can we talk about Will…please?”

“No.”

“Judy, come on. You know whatever he’s doing, he thinks it’s the right thing.”

“Really Penny? He’s going to take IA to the mountains to fight the Kur. I know them. You don’t know them. So many people are going to die. Their kids are trained from the time they can walk to defend their mountains. They will never surrender. Your brother is going to cause the deaths of thousands.”

“ _Our_ brother.”

Judy ignored her.

“Judy, you know Will. You know he has something planned.”

She looked at Penny finally. “I used to know Will. I don’t know who this person is. But he’s not my brother.”

“Jesus, Judy, don’t say that. He worships you.” Penny was almost in tears.

They heard a roar above them and saw a transport flying overhead. “There’s more IA your brother is bringing here. Probably from Earth now. They would have finished with the ones from Alpha Centauri by now. He’s going to bring them all here, and it will change everything on the planet. Will doesn’t care about that. Do you know how many people were willing to die for your brother, Penny? How many people _did_ die for him?”

“Yeah, I was there. And he was willing to die for them too, for me and for you and for a lot of people he had never met before.”

“Yeah, I knew _that_ Will,” Judy said.

“Goddamn it Judy! Have you ever asked yourself how much of it is your fault? You had him committed! You didn’t even talk to him about it! Maybe that was the final straw! You know what had happened to him the last two years! How could he continue to endure everything he has without it changing him? We were all he had, Judy. And if he didn’t think he could trust us anymore, then he didn’t have anything at all. Have you asked yourself how much of this is because of you?”

Judy was watching her sister as tears flowed down her cheeks. “Yes, Penny. I ask myself that every day.” She turned back and looked out at the IA soldiers again.

“Penny, you don’t understand. Those people…they are good. The other tribes are afraid of them, but they harm no one unless they are attacked. They saved Ben. And me. They took me in. Took care of me. They became my family. And I learned so much. About life other than how we live it. From Kalik. He loved his mountains, Penny. They all do. They live simple lives, but they are so much a part of the mountains. Be part. That’s what Kalik told me. Of the world. Of what’s around me. Appreciate everything. That’s how they live.

“And Penny, I took Will there. I’m responsible. He’s going to destroy their world. Kill them. And it’s my fault. So I do blame myself for Will. But I blame myself for what he’s going to do to the Kur too. You know how much I love Will. But I think it’s too late to save him. He’s just…not the same. But if I could stop him I would.”

She stopped talking.

“Judy…” But her sister had turned away from her again and Penny didn’t finish. Finally she stood up and walked back toward the Jupiter 2. Her mom and dad were standing in the Flight Deck looking out the window.

They turned when she walked in. Penny walked up and her mom and dad hugged her while she cried. “What are we going to do?” She asked. Maureen and John looked at each other over Penny’s head, but they had no answer.

By the end of the month, they stopped hearing the transports.

John and Maureen were in the Galley one morning with Penny when there was a call on John’s radio. “John, this is the Jupiter 2.0. Do you want to get out of there?”

“Gary!” John called.

Judy was walking down the hall to take a shower when she heard the call and ran back to the Galley.

“What happened to you?” John asked. “Is Robot still with you?”

“Yes, he’s in the engine room. Long story, but we got back finally. We’re hovering. Going to light them up, then land and get you. Hunker down.”

Maureen stood and grabbed Penny by the hand and ran to the Hub, John and Judy close behind. It was the safest area of the ship. “Now!” She yelled into the radio.

The explosions started seconds later. The smart bombs took out half of the IA soldiers on one side of the Jupiter 2. The others piled into their Jeeps and took off across the grassy field. The ship was rocked from side to side, the emergency warning blaring.

“Prepare for extraction,” Gary called.

“Let’s go!” John yelled and ran out of the Hub, the other’s following.

They ran down the ramp and stood watching the sky, until they finally saw the Jupiter 2.0 descending through a cloud bank.

“We’ll get as close as we can, but radar is picking up spacecraft in the mountains, so be quick,” Gary called John on his wrist radio.

“We’re ready,” John said. “You bring it down and we’ll be there!”

The ship was three hundred meters above the field when the robot ships came through the clouds. There were hundreds of them. “Shit!” Gary called. “We can’t land, our only chance is in flight.”

As soon as Judy heard this she turned and ran back toward the Jupiter. The others stood and watched the Jupiter 2.0 as it lifted back toward the cloud bank. Then they saw the Chariot speed past.

“It’s Judy!” Penny yelled.

“Judy, where are you going?” Maureen called over her radio.

“The last time I went to save Will,” Judy responded, “This time I’m going to stop him.”

Then her radio went silent, and John and Maureen’s signals stopped going through.

Penny watched the Chariot disappear across the field. “This is the end of my family,” She said.

She turned and walked back to the Jupiter 2, leaving her mom and dad in the field, watching their oldest daughter drive away.

Penny went to her bedroom, locked the door behind her, crawled in bed and brought the cover over her head.

Judy drove down the river road toward the City. There was a lot of activity and it was normal to see a Chariot now, so they pretty much ignored her. She knew where she was going. She would take the Chariot back to the woods where she and Nin had left it near the City when trying to find Will. That seemed like forever ago now, she thought. Back then she had hope for her brother. She refused to believe she couldn’t find him and refused to believe that she couldn’t save him. And she was able to do both. But that was her little brother. That boy was no longer here. He was no longer anywhere. She didn’t know who this boy was now, but she was going to stop him if she could.

She drove down the River Road until she recognized the hill that they had hidden the Chariot behind beneath the mountain range. She looked both directions up and down the road and saw no one around. She steered toward the woods. She drove behind the hill and parked in the same spot as she and Nin had parked and turned the engine off and got out. She looked at the Chariot. There was no reason to camouflage it, she decided.

From here, she could get to the mountains and to the Kur in a couple of days, but first she wanted to take a look at the city. She climbed the hill until she could stand and see it all. On the near side was the compound where the Fortuna soldiers had built their camp. But now it was much larger. She took the monocular out of the Go Bag she had taken from the Chariot and scanned the compound.

“What are they doing?” She said aloud. There were Jeeps and Chariots and troop transports all around. And they were building some type of enclosure. There were crews working on a tall chain link fence that extended from the buildings of the old compound north toward the hill that Judy stood on. “Maybe it’s for the equipment,” She said. On the other side of the river, there were three or four hundred jet copters in a line and dozens of Mobile Pulse Lasers.

There was so much equipment here, they would probably take over the entire planet in a matter of months. She brought the glass down and stood looking at the city, the military compound, the thousands of troops that seemed to be everywhere. She thought of the Kur and the Dal and the other tribes she had come to know here. “How could he do this?” She said.

Judy didn’t know if she could stop this person her brother had become, but she was willing to die trying. She put the monocular away and threw her pack over her shoulder and headed to the mountains.

When the Jupiter 2.0 lifted off from the field, they were surrounded by the robot ships. “We fighting them?” Clark asked.

“I’m not sold that Will is the enemy, and I think they are following his orders. Let’s try to lose them in the mountains,” Gary answered.

He turned the ship toward the mountain range and increased speed. The robot ships followed them, but hadn’t opened fire yet. They had just crossed the first high mountains when they heard the explosion, and the emergency signal begin to blare.

Gary looked at Clark. “We’re going down,” was all he said.


	39. Chapter 39

“Golden King? That’s what you call yourself. So…Golden Ruler?” Penny laughed. There were two guards beside her, holding her arms. The young king sat atop his throne looking down. He wasn’t amused.

“Because of your hair? Is that why? So what are you going to call yourself when it turns gray? Silver King? What if it falls out? Flesh Colored King? Maybe you will just have pattern baldness. The Receding Ruler?” She was laughing the entire time.

The people around the high stone chamber began to fidget. This girl had no idea what she was doing.

The young ruler looked at one of the guards and the man faced Penny, then hit her in the stomach. She doubled over and sank to her knees, trying hard to catch her breath as she looked up at the man on the throne. She was in pain, but still she smiled.

“You are amused?” The King said.

“I’m thinking about what my brother is going to do to you when he gets here.”

The King’s eyes flashed to the guard again. The guard grabbed Penny and stood her up. The other guard stepped in front of her, made a fist and punched her in the mouth.

She woke in the cell. She hurt all over. She gingerly felt her face. Bruised, dried blood under her nose, lips mangled, but no open lacerations. Maybe nothing permanent she thought. She kept her eyes shut. No reason to open them. Nothing to look at. Nowhere to go. She was fine right where she was.

“Penny, are you awake?” Her mother again. Penny kept her eyes closed, hoping she would go away. It had been three days since Judy had left. The IA soldiers had come back and surrounded the Jupiter 2 again. Penny didn’t care, she had spent most of that time in bed, emerging to go to the bathroom or grab something from the Galley, which she did late at night once she heard her parents go to bed.

“Penny! You need to get up. IA is here.” 

“Shit!” she said. She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. She finally crawled out of bed and opened her door.

“They want us outside,” Her mom said.

They walked down the hall then outside where the soldiers had all gathered in front of the ship. John and Don were standing in front of them, looking at an officer who was facing them. 

Maureen and Penny stood beside John. The officer looked at Penny and said, “You look good.” She hadn’t taken a shower in three days and she knew what her hair had to look like.

“Go fuck yourself,” She answered.

“We have orders to take you to the compound,” The officer said, looking at John. 

“Why?” John asked.

“You’re an old military man, when you got an order did you ever ask why?” The officer said.

“All the damn time,” John responded.

“Whatever,” The officer said, “I don’t. We were told not to hurt you, but if you resist, we're going to defend ourselves. So if you don't want your family to be hurt, just come with us."

"Let's do what they say," John said, turning to his wife and daughter.

The Officer looked at Penny. “You want to do anything with your hair or something before we go?”

She just looked back at him. “I…I thought I told you to go fuck yourself, and yet you’re still standing here.”

“Alright, let’s go.” They surrounded the family and ushered them toward the Jeeps.

Judy knew she was being watched long before she could see any of the Kur. She was sure with all of the activity down in the city, they had been keeping watch on the mountain passes anyway. But it wouldn’t matter, she would never get close to their cave system before being spotted.

She was well known by the Kur now, and even though they could be unpredictable, she wasn’t afraid.

It was late in the evening of her second day in the mountains when she finally saw them. There were two Kur in the path in front of her, and on a ledge above them she saw several more. None of them were hiding from her, if they had been she never would have spotted them.

She approached the two in front of her. They were both female. “Judy,” one of the girls smiled.

“Hi, Tere,” Judy said, smiling back. The girl had been a friend of Kalik’s, and they knew each other well.

“Are you here because of the men in the city?” Tere asked.

“Yes, I need to speak to the Elders,” Judy said.

“Follow me,” the girl said.

Judy knew things were different as soon as she entered the cave system. The Kur seemed to be very active. Dozens of them passed her in the tunnels as they walked. Many of them smiled and acknowledged her as they hurried by. Even those who did not know her well, knew the dark skinned girl was Mol Dalmu’s sister and Kalik’s lover and that he had died fighting for her. They accepted her as one of them.

Judy was used to being brought to the dining area and welcomed and made to relax. After she had awoken after falling from the cliff, Ben and Kalik had brought her here and it was another day before she saw the Elders, then when she and Will had come, they were not taken to see the Elders until the next day. They were fed and taken to the rooms to bathe and sleep. But this time they took her through the tunnels to the opening that led to the small room where the Elders stayed and where the Guardian was always standing to the door leading down another tunnel. The tunnel that Will said led to the White Room.

They led her into the chamber where the four elders sat. The old woman they called The Guardian was at the rear in front of the wooden door.

“We expected you, Judy.” One of the old women said. She was the one who spoke English, and was the one who had spoken to her before. She had never used Judy’s name before though.

“Why did you expect me?” She asked.

“We know what is happening. We know your brother is going to bring the soldiers to our mountains. And you are Kur now. So we expected you.”

“They have a lot of power,” Judy said. "They want to take over the mountains. They believe the robots are made here, somewhere. They have been trying to find them for twenty years. They will not stop.”

“We know what they want, Judy. So what would you suggest we do?”

“Leave the mountains.”

“We cannot do that.”

“But you don’t understand,” She said. “They have so many weapons. I know how powerful you are in the mountains, but you have never seen a force like this.”

“Is your brother with them?”

“Yes,” She answered.

“We have waited for many generations for the Great Change that Mol Dalmu would bring. Those of us alive are fortunate that we live in the time of Mol Dalmu. The Change will come. No one can stop that. If the Change comes because Mol Dalmu makes war on our people, that is only destiny. We cannot escape our destiny. Mol Dalmu cannot stop his destiny. Already they gather. They will come to our mountains and we will fight them. But we will not give up our mountains. Our home. And we will see what we will see.”

“Let me try to talk to him. He’s still my brother. Maybe part of him is still my brother anyway.”

“Judy, you are a friend to the Kur. You are Kur. You may stay here but you might die if you stay. This is a choice you must make. And if you want to try and speak to your brother when he comes here, we will not stop you. But child, the destiny of the Kur will be what it will be. As will your brother’s. As will yours.”

Penny spent all day, every day, lying on the cot in her cell. They had been brought here a week ago. She had been put in a separate part of the building from her parents and Don. She didn’t care. She didn’t want to speak to them or anyone else. She spent most of her time sleeping, or trying to sleep. She would go for two or three days without eating, then eat a little of the food they gave her, then go back to sleep.

One day she was lying on the cot when two female guards opened the door and ordered her out. When she ignored them they dragged her up and marched her down the hall to a shower room. They ordered her to undress and get in the shower. “Fuck you,” She responded, which was pretty much the entirety of her vocabulary since she had been brought here.

She tried to fight them off but both of them were strong and they pulled her clothes off and pushed her under the shower. But then they were strangely gentle. They made sure she was clean, and they washed her hair then they gave her clean clothes. She didn’t say anything as she got dressed.

“We’re going to bring you down every morning for a shower. We hope you won’t make us do it for you every day.”

“Fuck you,” Penny replied.

They repeated the process the next day and the next, but on the fourth day when they brought her down, she undressed herself, and from then on, they didn’t have to force her.

  
John and Maureen shared a room. They had been well treated too, but they wanted to know where Penny was. They were told she was fine, but that was the only information they were ever given. They had been in the cell for two weeks when they heard the door open at the end of the hall and footsteps coming their way. Then their son was standing at the bars looking in.

“Will!” Maureen and John ran to the door.

Maureen put her hand through the bars and pulled Will by the neck until his forehead was pressed against the bars and her head. John reached through and put his hand on Will’s shoulder, and put his head against Will’s as well. They just held on to each other without saying anything for a few minutes.

Finally Will said, “I love you guys. No matter what you think or what anyone says after this, I knew exactly what I was doing and there was a reason for it.”

“But what is it Will? Why can’t you tell us?” his father asked. 

“I just can't. I did this because I couldn’t risk having you stop me. I have to see this through. Then everything will be fine.”

“But what about you Will? Will you be fine?” Maureen asked.

“Yes Mom. I will be. Finally. But, I made this decision when I left with the robots. I guess it just didn’t happen when I thought it would.”

He stepped back away from the bars. “The Council is free now on Alpha Centauri. IA has no influence there anymore. You can take Penny and go back when this is over. Penny is fine.”

“What about Judy?” John asked.

“I will make sure she’s OK, if I can. Then you need to all go to Alpha Centauri, and get on with your lives. I love you guys so much.”

He turned and walked down the hall, as his parents called after him.

  
Penny was lying on the cot when she realized someone was watching her. She looked up and saw her brother standing there. She didn’t say anything and she didn’t move, she just looked at him.

Finally she said, “I know you think you are fixing it all Will. But you aren’t. You are destroying it all. Our family. Whatever you are doing, you are destroying our family, Will.”

She stood and walked slowly toward him until she was standing at the bars. They stared at each other, so close they could feel each other’s breath.

“Have you dreamed of the City anymore?” Will asked.

“Yes,” She said.

“Me too,” he answered. “In that dream, everyone knows me. Me and Robot. They are afraid of me.”

“I know,” she said. She reached between the bars and laid a hand gently on his shoulder.

“Gary Sargent had this quote underlined in a book I borrowed from him. It said, ‘The hero of yesterday becomes the tyrant of tomorrow unless he crucifies himself today.’ In that dream I am a hero, or a tyrant. I don’t know which. Maybe I’m both. But I don’t want to be either one, Penny.”

“I know Will. You want to be a boy. A fourteen year old boy playing video games and watching movies and falling in love. I know you Will. I know what you want. You don’t want to be anything more than that. But when I was on Alpha Centauri the last time and saw Rose, she told me something about you. She said, some people are meant to live bigger lives than they ever expected to, no matter how much they try to escape it. But you think you can escape it by crucifying yourself, don’t you?”

They just looked at each other for a minute, then he said, “I was so lucky to have you as my sister, Penny. I never deserved you. I want you to know, when they say things about me and what I did, I need you to know that I wasn’t crazy. I knew exactly what I was doing.”

“I know that Will. But I need you to do something for me.”

“What Penny?”

“Let me go.”

“They will let you go when this is over. I told Mom and Dad. IA is off of Alpha Centauri. I saw Victor. And Vijay is there. The Council has been released and is in charge again. You can go with Mom and Dad and Judy if I can make that happen, and get on with your life.”

“No Will. I want you to let me go now. Release me and give me a Chariot.”

“You can’t stop this, Penny.”

“I’m not trying to Will. I’m trying to understand it.”

He looked at her for several seconds without answering. Then he stepped to the side of the door, placed his palm on the security scanner and the door unlocked. He opened it and stepped away for her to walk out. She stopped in front of him. They just looked at each other, then he turned and led her down the hall and upstairs and to the front where several officers were standing guard.

The guards stared at the two of them. An officer ran up and looked at Will, then Penny. "What…”

“Have someone bring a Chariot up,” Will said.

“I have to call…”

_“Do it now!”_

The officer looked at one of the soldiers and motioned and the man walked out.

Will followed him out of the building with his sister by his side. They just looked at each other as they waited.

The soldier pulled the Chariot up and Penny and Will stepped to the driver’s side. The man had left the door open and the engine running.

Penny stood looking at Will before getting in. “When the stars were right, they could plunge from world to world throughout the sky,” She said. “But when the stars were wrong, they could not live.”

He looked back at his sister. His always companion. He had a memory flash of them lying side by side in the back of the SUV, riding through a misty spring morning just as the sun was coming up. He couldn’t remember where they were going, but it was somewhere in the West. Judy was asleep in the seat in front of them, and their dad was driving, their mom beside him. He remembered his parents talking lowly to themselves, laughing quietly about something the children were not privy to. Will remembered looking up at Penny, his big sister, and she smiled down at him.

“Carlsbad,” Penny said.

Will’s mind was brought back to the present. “What?”

“We were on our way to Carlsbad. The day before we had gone to the Painted Desert."

She had read his thoughts again, like the two of them had done when he was in the cage. He didn’t even question how or why anymore, neither of them did. It was almost like it was natural. He smiled. “Yeah.”

“I love you Will Robinson,” She said.

“I love you Penny Robinson,” He replied.

Then they hugged. They wanted to keep holding each other. They could both feel it. But she let go and climbed in the Chariot and drove off without looking back. He stood and watched the Chariot drive away, then he walked off toward the gate to enter the city proper.

The two guards tried to follow him closely, but he waved them away, so they fell back, still keeping him in sight. Not long ago he would never have been able to enter the city without being killed. The people thought he had murdered their families and friends as they tried to flee from the battle with the Fortuna troops. But things were different now. The IA soldiers were everywhere. Most of the warriors had disappeared or no longer had the stomach for fighting these heavily armed men. A few people watched him pass, and he noticed them whispering and talking as he walked by, but he wasn’t afraid. And he didn’t care anyway.

Forty minutes later he was at the South side of the city, in the rundown neighborhood, with weed covered alleys instead of the clay packed streets. He was standing outside the little home where Terry and Zana lived. Zana walked out the front door and hugged him. “He’s in back waiting for you, Will. The Dal are back again and saw you coming. I’ll bring out a couple of beers.”

Terry was sitting at the old wooden table in back by himself. Zana brought out three mugs of strong beer. Will sat down and Zana joined them.

“I’m not gonna ask you what you’re doing,” Terry said. “I figure you know.”

“I do, Terry. Nin’s still in the Valley, right?”

“Yes.”

Will looked around and saw the two guards, standing a few houses away, watching him. He lowered his voice. “Can you get her a message?”


	40. Chapter 40

The Soldiers were lined up along the top of a cliff overlooking a steep ravine. Judy had crossed this ravine with the Dal girl who helped her escape to the Mountains. It seemed so long ago, she thought, as she walked down the same path she had fled up. Back then she was looking for Will. Now she knew where he was. He was at the bottom of the ravine waiting for her. There were thirty Kur with her, but there were hundreds more in the cliffs above, hidden from view, blending in with the mountains.

She glanced up at the soldiers across the ravine, on top of the cliff. There were thousands of them. All dressed in black, faces covered, no insignia. They all had laser rifles. Judy glanced down at the path and tried to keep her mind clear.

At the bottom, she walked through some light brush until she came out at the floor of the canyon. Standing twenty meters away on the other side of the ravine were fifty IA soldiers. Her brother was in the center of the line with Hastings next to him.

Judy led the Kur across the floor of the canyon until she stood two meters from her brother.

The brother and sister just looked at each other for a minute or two, until Judy said, “Take them and leave, Will.”

“I can’t Judy.”

“You can. You know you can. You control everything. It took me a long time to figure that out, Will, but now I know it’s true. You can blame him,” she pointed at Hastings. “You can blame everything that happened to you, but in the end, you are in control of this. They will do what you tell them, or you can stop cooperating. But whatever happens it is your decision. I figured that out. What I haven’t figured out is why.”

“Why?” Will asked. “So you’ve decided I’m not psychotic?”

“You most definitely are not. You have planned this too perfectly. You are not psychotic. You’re just evil.”

She saw the emotion in his face at that, and she regretted it. Despite all of this, she regretted hurting him.

“Judy, tell them to surrender, please.” He said. “They can’t win this, but we can stop it. All they have to do is leave the mountains and no one will be hurt.”

“You know I already tried that Will. And you know they won’t do that.”

“I had to ask you again.”

“And you don’t know they can’t win this, Will. This is their home. These are their mountains. These soldiers look weak to me, even with all of their weapons. Win or lose, a lot of them are going to die too.”

Then they heard the roar above and across the mountains. The space ships came. The sky filled with them. There were many more than had been with Will before. At least five hundred robot ships, hovering over the ravine, waiting for Will’s orders.

“Will, no.” Judy said.

“They can’t win, Judy. You can’t win.”

“How could you do this Will?” There were tears running down her cheeks.

“I have no choice.”

Judy was crying, but Will stood, resolved.

She wiped her eyes. “My brother died in that cage. I thought I saved him, but I was too late. He died there. My beautiful, wonderful, kind little brother died there all alone.”

“I know, Judy.” Tears came to Will’s eyes now too, and trickled down his cheeks. “I wish…I wish I was still that boy.”

And her heart broke for him. She just wanted to run and grab him in her arms and hold him. Take him from this place. Go back to Alpha Centauri, or Earth and sit with him in the park. Anywhere but here. Here at the bottom of this canyon on the planet that had destroyed everything he had been. But she knew it was too late to save him. So she just stood there and cried for him.

After a few minutes, he wiped his eyes, then took a backpack off his shoulder and took a step forward and tossed it on the ground in front of her. “There are some things I took from the Jupiter 2 I thought you might want. I love you, Judy.” He turned and walked back to the soldiers. Judy looked at the pack lying on the ground in front of her. She started to walk away and leave it, but she stepped up, grabbed it by a strap then turned and headed back up the path toward the mountains, the Kur following her.

The attack came the next night. The Kur were all long the cliff side, hidden from below, waiting. Others were armed and lining the tunnels, waiting for the order to attack. They were not concerned. No one had ever been able to shake them from their mountains. There were openings throughout this side of the range, so they could move unnoticed to come out behind the enemy, then disappear back into the hidden tunnels. They were ready.

But they had never fought the robots before. The spaceships covered the mountain range and used sonic wave sensors to find the hidden openings in the mountains. Then they went about closing them.

The Kur had ordered Judy to stay in the small chamber that was used for dining. She had argued with them, but she was a guest, and in their culture, guests were protected from any and all danger.

Word passed through the chambers quickly. The tunnel openings were being closed with laser blasts from the spaceships. The Kur warriors along the cliff sides were retreating back inside the tunnels, so they wouldn’t be trapped outside. Their ability to travel within the vast cavern was the key to their strength, and as deadly as they were on the cliffs, they needed to be able to move their numbers from one place to the next to defend areas under attack or to surprise their enemies.

The tunnels were filling with warriors, and Judy could sense the concern in their ranks.

She sat at the table, lost in her thoughts. She picked up the backpack that Will had given her, reached inside, and pulled out a photo. It was an old photo that Penny had printed and framed. She hadn’t seen it since they had gone to space, but Will used to keep it in his bedroom on a shelf, back home. It had been Penny’s originally, but somehow he had ended up with it, and when Penny saw it on his dresser she just left it there.

It was of the three of them. Judy was sweaty, her hair pulled back into a tight pony tail. She was in her track suit and her arms were around her brother and sister. They were standing in the bleachers, smiling people all around looking at them. It was when she was a Junior in high school and had won her first state title for the 400, beating the state champion and record holder, Joann Freeman.

Judy remembered there had been two college age guys in front of them, and Penny had leaned forward and handed them her wrist radio and asked if they would take a photo. Her right arm was around Will, pulling him tightly into her chest, her left arm around Penny, and Penny’s head was leaning against her shoulder. All three of them had wide grins on their faces.

Judy looked at the photo for a long time, then realized her tears were falling on it. She dried her eyes, wiped the photo off and reached back into the pack. Will had put a favorite sweatshirt of her’s in it, and a baseball cap. She used to wear the cap all the time when she was younger. Will had inherited it somewhere along the line, as siblings do.

She reached back in the pack. She pulled out a hand laser. She looked at it. Her brother was still trying to protect her in some weird way. “Fuck him,” she said. She reached in again. There was something bulky in the bottom, rolled up in a jacket. She pulled it out, stared at it. Then she said, “Oh, no.”

She rushed out of the dining chamber into the tunnel. People were running past her to where she knew the closest opening of the caverns to the city was. The entire tribe seemed to be moving in that direction, including the children. She knew they weren’t trying to escape; they were headed to the front of the tunnel to defend their home. All of them.

“No! Not that way!” She grabbed a small girl by the wrist. “No! Stop, you’ll die!” She tried to pull the child the other direction, but the girl pulled loose and ran on by.

Judy rushed down the tunnel until she was outside the opening leading to the Elder’s chamber. She turned to the side tunnel and ran down it until she was in the chamber where the Elders were standing and dressing in Anbar suits. Two Kur were assisting them. The Guardian was in a suit as well.

Judy said, “We need to leave! Out another exit.” She dropped her backpack and she was holding up the bulky item that her brother had placed in the bottom of the bag. It was a gas mask. “They’re going to use gas!”

“There is no other escape,” the Guardian said. “They have closed them all. We will meet them where they enter our caves. We will prevail or we will die, but either way, the Great Change shall come. Remain here, and survive.”

“No! I’m going too. Maybe I can still talk to him,” Judy said.

She followed them out. They had gone past the dining chamber and up the tunnel for another fifteen minutes when she realized it was too late. The air was thick; the elders began coughing. People were rushing back toward them, choking and falling. “No!” She yelled. She covered her mouth and nose with her shirt. She tried to keep moving forward, but she started coming to the bodies. They were stacked, lying where they fell. She saw the body of the little girl she had tried to save.

“How could he do this?” She cried. “He’s a monster. He’s a monster.” She sat down in the tunnel beside the body of the little girl. No one else was coming that way. “My God. He killed them all.”

Her eyes watered. She was coughing and her lungs were filling. She shut her eyes. Fine Will, If this is what you wanted, I hope you find me here with them, she thought. Then she said aloud, “you fucking monster.”

Suddenly she opened her eyes. He wouldn’t find her here, dead. But she would make sure he found her. She pulled the gas mask over her face. There was no oxygen tank, but it had charcoal filters. She didn’t know what they were going to use, or how much protection it would offer, but she only cared about surviving long enough to see her brother. And she knew that’s what he wanted too. And why he had left her the laser and the mask.

As she made her way back, the tunnels were silent. The Kur were all warriors and they would be found near the front, she knew. She turned from the main tunnel into the small passageway until she was in the Elder’s chamber, now silent and empty. She walked over to the wooden door leading down the hidden tunnel. She sat in the corner beside the door. She pulled the laser pistol out of the backpack and leaned against the wall.

“OK little brother. Come and find me. I’m the Goddamn Guardian now.”


	41. Chapter 41

Penny drove out of the compound, north away from the city, crossed a bridge over the river and into the plains where the battle with the Haja had occurred.

She remembered that day. It had seemed that everything had finally come to fruition and that it would end there on the field. Will had been correct, that Ravi ja had wanted to talk to him. The two had walked away from everyone else and spoke. The massive Haja army was on the north side of the field, waiting to attack. The Dal and a few hundred warriors waited on the other side, prepared to fight to the death for Will.

And Ravi ja was laughing. A deep belly laugh. Penny remembered looking over to where her skinny little brother walked with the huge tattooed warrior who, at one time, was prepared to torture him to death. And Ravi ja was laughing. It didn’t surprise Penny. She had grown to know the warrior in the weeks that she had been his prisoner. She had seen a different side of the man. She had smiled when she saw him laughing. She watched as he gently placed a hand on her little brother’s shoulder. But then something was wrong. He seemed to freeze, then collapse. Will caught him and lowered the man to the ground, and cried out.

That’s the moment it all changed. A sniper with the Intelligence Agency had murdered Ravi ja. The battle was launched, and Will summoned his Robots and chased the Haja from the field. But then he gave up. Doing what Will always did, he sacrificed himself to stop the war and save lives.

But what was he up to now? It didn’t make sense to her. Instead of trying to stop IA, he was working with them. Bringing them to the Amber Planet. Preparing to lead them to the mountains of the Kur, and take them to where the robots were built. Everything they wanted. Now he was sacrificing the entire planet. The tribes who had fought for him. The people who had kept Will and his sisters alive and safe in the jungle when everyone wanted to kill them. He was pitting himself against Judy, as she fought to save the people who had taken her in. Instead of sacrificing himself, Will was sacrificing his sister, his whole family, and the planet. And Penny didn’t know why.

She knew she couldn’t stop him. That part of it was already over. But she had to understand. Why? Why would Will do this to the people who loved him? She could only think of one place to go where she might find answers.

She drove for hours until she came to the small river that she had jumped in to escape after hitting Ravi ja in the head with a rock. She found a narrow part of the stream and drove across it and then through the brush she had crawled through while the Haja searched all along the bank for her.

Soon, the brush turned to dry shrubs and cactus and then the dunes were ahead. She knew approximately where she was going, but she thought if she got close enough, they would find her. She drove through the night and the following day.

The shadows of the dunes were growing long when she saw the first Ladore. Three of the woman warriors sat astride their large, camel-like animals, the Jawael, watching as she drove across the sand toward them.

When she was close, dozens more appeared and closed in on all sides until she was surrounded. She stopped the Chariot and waited. One of the women rode up beside her on the driver’s side. Penny recognized the woman from the weeks she had spent with the Ladore, but she couldn’t remember her name. She lowered the window.

“Penny Robinson, have you become lost, again?”

“No, I was looking for you.”

“Then follow.” The woman turned and disappeared over the dune, and Penny drove after her, the rest of the Ladore falling in behind the Chariot.

A few hours later, they were at the oasis. Penny parked the vehicle just outside the tree line and followed the Ladore, who had dismounted and were leading their animals through the trees toward the tents. “Are you taking me to Roana?” Penny asked as they walked.

“No, she is not here right now, but someone else will be happy to see you,” the woman looked over her shoulder and grinned at her.

“Penny!” She looked up to see Siena, a smile on her face.

Despite why she was here, Penny found herself smiling as her friend walked toward her. They embraced. “I need to speak to you,” Penny said. “About my brother.”

“Then you must speak to Roana. She can tell you anything you want to know. But Roana is in the City. She will return tomorrow or the following day. There is much activity, and she wanted to observe for herself. There are many paths, but few that will suffice, she says.”

“See! That’s what I mean! What’s this about paths?”

“Penny, we are taught what we must know, when we must know it. So, much of what I tell you would be conjecture. You must wait for Roana.

“Now, bathe, rest, and eat.”

“But...”

“Follow.”

As Penny soaked, her head against the side of the pool, she realized Siena was right. It was the first time she had really relaxed since she had been here before. Siena had brought fruit and the light clothes the Ladore favored, and then left Penny so she could have privacy.

When she was dressed, she walked toward the tent where she had stayed with Siena when she was here before. She found the girl at the rear sleeping chamber, behind the sheer curtain. The girl was on one of the stuffed cushions that they used for a bed. The room was illuminated by a flickering candle on a small table.

Penny had slept before on a cushion on the other side of the room, but this time she sat next to Siena. “Penny…” the girl began, but before Siena could finish her thought, Penny turned and kissed her.

Roana arrived late in the afternoon of the following day. Siena and Penny came to her tent as soon as they heard she had arrived. Roana was at the back of the tent with three other women when they rushed in.

“Penny, we had word you were here,” Roana said, smiling as she motioned for the girls to sit on the empty low cushions in the room. “I trust Siena has shown you the hospitality the Ladore are famous for.”

Penny knew the woman was teasing her, but she wasn’t in the mood for it. “You know things about my brother. I want to know everything.”

Roana’s expression grew serious, and the other women were quiet. “There are things that are not for you to know, Penny.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? He’s my brother.”

“Will is so much more than your brother Penny.”

“Does this make you feel important Roana? Speaking in riddles? You helped us survive. You saved me in the desert. You saved Will’s life. But, it wasn’t for us, was it? It wasn’t for Will.”

They were all looking at Roana. Penny, Siena, and the other women in the room.

Roana sighed. “We are not cruel, Penny. But you are correct, it isn’t about your brother. He is a pawn in a game that is much larger than he is. A very important pawn. The most important pawn. Yet, he is still a pawn.”

“He’s not a pawn to me.” Penny’s voice was so low they had to strain to hear her. “He’s the five year old boy who used to crawl in my bed at night when he had a nightmare. He’s the seven year old boy who used to wake me up at four in the morning on Christmas to come stare at the presents under the tree with him, and wait for our parents to wake up. He’s the nine year old boy who came and sat on the bed with me when I was fourteen and had my heart broken for the first time. He couldn’t even understand why I was so sad, but he just sat there while I cried. When I told him I was OK, and he could go to bed, he said he would just sit there till I fell asleep. And he did.

“He’s my brother Roana, and I love him. And something is happening to him that I can’t fix. But I need to know. I need to know that the little boy who did all of those things is not the same boy who is about to cause the deaths of thousands of innocent people. Don’t you see that? He might be your pawn, Roana. But he’s my brother.”

Her eyes were full of tears and the pain in her voice was heart wrenching. Siena moved next to her and put her arms around her. They were all looking at Roana.

The woman sighed. “Alright Penny. I cannot tell you everything about your brother. It is not your place to know. But you need to know this: what is to happen, must happen. You cannot stop it. This has been planned for centuries. There were many roadblocks. Many paths it could have taken. But now we are here. And it will be finished.” And then she told her how.

Penny flew over the dunes, pushing the Chariot as hard as she could. She had been gone two days, and she knew she wouldn’t be back until late the following afternoon. The two moons were bright, the sky full of stars. It was a brilliant night in the desert, but she took no notice. She wiped tears as she pushed the Chariot up one dune, down another. She didn’t want to believe what Roana had told her, but she knew it was true. She had no idea how she could stop this from happening if she somehow got back in time. But she had to try.


	42. Chapter 42

The robot ships never landed. They covered the mountains, destroying the cave openings, all but the entrance leading to the main tunnel. The Kur’s strength depended on their ability to move secretly through the mountains, and on their fighting abilities along the cliffs and trails. They could camouflage themselves to the point of being invisible, attack their enemies, scale the sheer cliff faces, then disappear among the rocky slopes or back inside hidden tunnel openings.

But they soon saw they would never have that opportunity. They watched the spaceships fire lasers into the cliff side to close the tunnel openings, never landing and never getting close enough that the Kur could use their strengths.

Once the openings had been closed off, the spaceships gathered above the mountain side facing the main entrance and the only one left. The Kur were brave, but with no enemy on the ground, they had no choice but to retreat back in to the tunnels to avoid being attacked on the cliff side by the robot ships and their laser power.

Once the Kur were inside the mountain, the drones came. They fired canisters of gas over and over into the main tunnel. The battle was over before it started. With the other exits closed off, the gas permeated the tunnels in minutes and the Kur began falling. More and more canisters were fired into the opening.

Some of the Kur retreated deep into the caverns, but still there was no escape. Hours later, the Robot’s sonic sensors recorded no movement inside the caves. It was only then that the first helicopter hovered above the trail outside the main opening and lowered the first four soldiers. Gas masks secured, they stepped inside the tunnel, and a few minutes later, stepped back out and signaled to the helicopter hovering a few meters above the trail.

Three others lowered down the cable. One was Captain Jespers, one was Hastings and one was Will. Hastings had tried to talk Will into waiting until the system was secure, but he insisted that he be on the ground to supervise the next phase of the operation. They had secured him to the cable before he descended. They were too close to let anything happen to him now.

Once Will, Hastings, and Jespers were on the mountain path, they walked into the opening of the cave and saw the bodies were stacked three high. Will picked up the sleeve of one of the them and turned to Hastings. “These suits need stripped from them. All of our men need to be wearing a suit to go into the tunnel system where I’m taking you. The heat is intense, and they will die without them.”

“How many need to go?” Hastings asked.

“As many as we have suits for,” Will replied. “The closer we get to the place we are going, the more dangerous it will be. For a large part of it there is a pathway over a deep cave. We can walk two abreast on that, but when we are at the cave I’m taking you to, it will be more spread out, and that’s where we are most vulnerable to attack.”

“But we have five thousand troops up here,” Hasting argued.

“We need them all. We could take three thousand probably into the tunnel system, if there are that many suits, but the others can wait here inside the mountain. If we have to retreat they will be needed for reinforcements. But we need to take as many as possible.” Hastings just stared at him for a few seconds, then he smiled. Will started to ask him about it, but decided it didn’t matter.

“Doing this your way will take days before we can even start going to this other cave you are taking us to,” Jespers said.

“Then we better get started,” the boy replied. He checked his gas mask to make sure it was secure, then walked deeper into the tunnel.

Will was dressed in the Anbar suit, and led Hastings, Jespers and the four soldiers down the main tunnel. They climbed over the bodies of the Kur as they made their way along the dark passage. Behind them, they heard other helicopters hovering and they knew hundreds of men were sliding down the cables, while thousands more trudged up the trail from the canyon below where they had waited. They would strip the bodies of the Kur, and put the Anbar suits on, then wait for orders as more and more of the soldiers arrived.

Will walked until he came to the side passageway leading to the Elder’s chamber. He stopped and looked at Hastings. “We need guards posted here. No one goes in. When we are done, I will go in first, understand?”

“Will…”

“There’s no negotiation on this. I’ve been doing everything you asked. Now you need to do what I want. Leave guards here and when I’m finished I’ll be back, and I will go first. I’ve been here before. But no one goes in before me, OK?”

“Whatever you say, Will," Hastings said. "But there is a point that it’s going to feel like you’re wasting our time. And remember, if you fuck with me I have your parents. The guards at the facility have orders to kill them if anything goes wrong. And you’re not going anywhere without me.”

“Have you been disappointed yet?” Will asked.

“No,” Hastings replied. “You’re still not going anywhere without me.” He looked at Will for a second, then at the two soldiers. “You two, stay here. No one goes in or comes out until we come back, got it?”

“Yes sir,” they both responded.

Will just stood there looking at them. “Well?” Hastings said. “Are we going?”

“In a minute,” the boy replied. He was looking down the main tunnel. Then Hastings saw what he was waiting for.

“I thought you weren’t bringing them in here,” He said.

“Just a few,” Will answered. “They can cover these tunnels faster than we can.”

TAR stopped in front of Will. There were six other robots behind him. “TAR, you stay with me, OK? The other’s know what to do?”

“Yes,” TAR said.

“Now we’re ready,” Will said, looking at Hastings. He walked off, the large robot following him.

Jespers and Hastings stood back for a second, letting them get ahead. “You sure you know what you’re doing?” Jespers asked Hastings.

“I haven’t known what I’m doing since the first time I saw that kid talking to a robot like he was his big brother. And I haven’t had much choice in any of it either.” He followed Will and the robot. Jespers stood for a second, then walked after Hastings.


	43. Chapter 43

“Can I hold him?” Judy asked.

“Yes, like this,” her mom answered. “One arm under his butt, the other under his neck, so his head doesn’t fall back, OK?”

“Yes,” Judy said.

Maureen gently handed Will off to her oldest daughter, making sure she was supporting him correctly.

He was warm in her arms. Judy looked down at the infant’s face, scrunched up as if he didn’t like being moved. Then he opened his eyes and smiled up at her.

“He’s smiling!” Judy was seven years old, and had waited almost three months for her mother and father to bring her little brother home from the hospital. Penny was standing beside her, looking at the baby in her sister’s arms, wishing she could hold him, but her mother had told her she was too small.

“He trusts you,” John said. “He knows you will always take care of him.”

Judy smiled down at her little brother. Penny reached over and touched his tiny head. He was so warm.

“I will take care of you, Will,” Judy said. “Don’t worry.”

“You know Judy, your dad’s serious,” Maureen said. “He will always be your little brother. He will tell you things he will never tell us, because we’re his parents. He has to know he can always trust you, and you will always be there for him. Both of you,” she added, smiling now at Penny who was stroking Will’s head.

Judy was still smiling at her baby brother who was looking up at her. “I love you, Will,” she said.

Judy opened her eyes. How much time had passed? Three days? Four? She had stayed there in the chamber, most of the time leaning against the wall next to the wooden door. Waiting for her little brother. She had been dreaming…perhaps remembering…the day her mother and father had brought Will back from the hospital. It was as if it was yesterday.

She had taken her parent’s words seriously. Maybe because she had felt such a connection to her little brother from the very beginning. Maybe because her biological father had disappeared before she was born, and she would never know him, and since John was gone so much. She wanted Will to always feel his family was there. That she was there.

For whatever the reason, she felt responsible for her little brother, and had been more than an older sister to him from the beginning. She could never remember a time when she looked at him as an annoying little brother.

And Will, for his part, was a happy child. Though there was something about him. Not a darkness, but maybe a seriousness that seemed strange in such a small child. He would grow quiet sometimes, and Judy and Penny would watch him, lying in his crib or sitting on the living room floor, surrounded by his toys. He would just stop doing what he was doing and look around the room. Not laughing or smiling, just glancing around, as if he was searching for something just out of reach. But then he would catch Judy or Penny’s eye, and he would smile broadly, as if whatever invisible demons he had envisioned disappeared once he saw his sisters were there.

What she wouldn’t give to go back there to those days when her little brother was the loving innocent child. But those days were over. And that little boy no longer existed.

She missed him. She missed him so badly. And she would always blame herself for creating what he had become. For what she had said to him on the Resolute. That he didn't belong in space. She knew the isolation in the cage, the mental torture he had endured, had changed him forever. And it had eventually consumed him. Now she had to stop him before he could do more harm. She had created the person he had become, and it was her responsibility to stop him.

She had fallen asleep off and on, or maybe passed out over the last couple of days. At first she had heard people running down the tunnels, and she waited for him to come in the cavern where he knew she would be. She had taken care of him for as long as she could remember. She had tried to save him, but she had failed. Now the only thing she could do was put an end to this. And because she knew Will so well, she knew that was what he wanted as well. And so she waited.

“It’s done.” Hastings was standing outside the side tunnel with the guards they had posted. Will had been walking through the tunnels with TAR for days, looking at everything for himself to make sure his orders had been carried out. Hastings and Jespers had followed behind them. Now Will and the robot had walked off a few meters. Jespers started to follow them and Hastings said, “No. He’s not going far. He thinks his sister is in here.” The Captain waited beside Hastings.

Will stopped in the tunnel and turned to TAR. “I need you to do one more thing for me. But it’s your choice. I need you to find my family, and…take their spaceship to Alpha Centauri. I don’t know what happened to Robot. But I felt something…bad. And I can’t feel him now. At all.”

Will’s connection with Robot had always come and gone, but he had felt something different this time. It was after the Jupiter 2.0 had attacked the guards around his family’s ship. The robots had chased the 2.0 off over the mountains, but knew not to attack. But then something happened. Will had been in the city, and he had felt a sudden jolt, then he was connected to Robot, briefly. And just for a second, he was back in the tree, when Robot had quickly climbed to the limb and picked Will up in his arms. Will felt it as if they were there together, back where it had all started between them. And then…he lost him. But this time it felt different to him. Final. Like when he had told him to walk off the cliff. Will had tried many times to connect with him after that, but he had been unable to even get a glimpse in his mind.

“Your spaceships are on Alpha Centauri, TAR. Three of them. Once you take my family back, you can take one and leave, and then, you can do what you want. Will you do that for me, TAR?”

The large robot stared at the boy for a few seconds. Their lives had been tied together for a long time now, from when he had taken Will from the Resolute. His face shield turned dark blue, and he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Yes Will Robinson.”

Will hugged the robot’s large chest, thinking of Robot, and wishing he could have seen his friend again. Will let go of TAR and turned and walked back toward the tunnel leading to the Elder’s Chamber, where he knew he would find his sister waiting for him.

Hastings, Jespers and the two guards waited until Will was in front of them.

“Is everything ready?” Will asked, looking at Hastings.

“Yes. The soldiers are waiting for their orders,” Hastings said. They had retrieved almost three thousand Anbar suits from the bodies of the Kur. The soldiers who were wearing them were lined up from this cavern, and wound back through the cave system. They had all thought this was crazy when they were told what the plans were, but they had captured the mountain without suffering a single casualty, other than one soldier who had fallen from the trail on the way up. The soldiers without suites were told to wait inside the caves and be prepared for any counter attack.

Will looked at the tunnel entrance, leading to the Elder’s chamber. “I’ll go alone,” Will told Hastings.

“No…”

“Yes. Once she’s out, we will go on. But I need to do this myself.”

“You don’t even know she’s there,” Hastings argued.

“She’s there,” Will responded. “And I will do this alone.”

“There’s another chamber?” Hastings asked.

“Yes, a small one. She will be there.”

“Then we’ll wait outside that one,” Hastings said.

“Fine,” Will answered. He turned and led them in.

Judy saw him step inside the small room. He was alone. He had no gas mask on. She had been here for days, most of the time just sitting by the wooden door, waiting. So when she stood she was stiff.

“You don’t need the gas mask anymore, Judy,” he said. “We’ve ventilated everything.”

When phase one was completed and they knew the Kur were no longer a danger, they had blasted open the tunnels that the robot ships had closed, then landed the helicopters with mixed-mode ventilation systems to pump out the contaminated air.

She lifted off her mask and dropped it on the ground. She pointed the laser pistol at her brother. She held it with two hands, her arms extended. Her face was dirty, covered with sweat and dust from the caverns. There was fury in her eyes. Her hands shook.

“How could you Will?”

“There was no other way. I tried. I tried to think of something else. That’s why I left the base on Earth. I didn’t want this to happen. I didn’t want you to…to hate me. but I couldn’t…think of anything else. I just gave up, Judy.”

“And so you murdered them.”

“You will understand eventually, Judy.”

“No. I will never understand this Will.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No. You don’t get to do all this, then just apologize like it was a mistake. You fucking murdered them Will! How could you? You were so good. So kind. At least my brother was. You? I don’t know you.”

“Judy…you were such a great sister. You took care of me from the time I can remember.” He had tears flowing down his cheeks.

“No! Stop it! You can’t just do that. Just act like everything is OK. I…I should never have pulled you from the river. I should have let you die.” She was crying now too.

At one time it would have stunned him to hear these words coming from his sister, but he had dreamed it. The two of them here in this dim cavern. The fury and hatred in her eyes. “I wish you would have, Judy. I really wish you would have.”

And she knew she had been right. He had left the laser pistol for her because he knew where she would be. And he wanted her to decide. Whatever this was all about, he was going to let her decide how it would end for him. It was the little cloth bag of poison and he was giving her the choice. He wanted her to take this burden from him. Because he loved her and trusted her.

She gripped the laser, her finger on the trigger. She was shaking, the tears flowing down her cheeks. She knew what he wanted. She pressed the trigger slowly. “Goddamn you Will! You were my little brother! I loved you more than anyone in the world!” She threw the gun to the ground and charged.

He didn’t try to stop her. He didn’t move. He just stood and watched her run at him.

Then he was on his back, and his sister was on top of him. Her first punch broke his nose, and blood splattered his chest. She struck him again and again. He didn’t try to defend himself; He didn’t raise his hands. He just laid on his back in the dimly lit room, his sister on top of him. His sister who had protected him his entire life. The one person he shared everything with. The one person he had always counted on.

She stopped hitting him and cried out in her fury and her pain. She looked down at him. At his bloodied face, illuminated in the green glow of the organic lights. He laid there and looked up at her as blood filled his eyes and his vision blurred. He had nothing but warmth in his heart for her. “I love you, Judy,” he mumbled through his already swelling lips.

“Don’t do that Will! Don’t do that!” She was crying, her tears dripping on him and mingling with his blood. She started to strike him again. Her fist was raised as he laid there looking up at his sister. Still he made no move to stop her. He didn’t cover his face. He didn’t flinch. He just looked up at her with the same love in his eyes he had always had for her. He would lie there and let her beat him to death if she wanted. She didn’t hit him again. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled his head and shoulders off the ground until their faces were inches apart. “I loved you. I loved you so much,” she cried, her body racked with sobs.

Then she was being pulled off him. Two soldiers had grabbed her, and Hastings was helping Will to his feet. As Judy was pulled down the tunnel, her words echoed through the chamber, “I hate you Will! I hate you Will! I hate you Will!”

Hastings pulled a cloth from a backpack and tried to use it to stop the blood flowing from Will’s nose. The boy brushed his hand away.

“Will, you’re hurt.”

“Leave me alone.” The blood flowed freely. He tasted its saltiness, felt it in the back of his throat.

Hastings tried again to help him. “No!” He yelled. He felt the blood dripping off his chin. He knew his face was swelling, but he didn't care. “Tell them we are moving out,” he said, choking on blood and spitting it on the cavern floor. He walked across the small chamber toward the wooden door.

Hastings looked at Jespers beside him. “Give the order. We're moving out. Everyone without a suit stays in the caves, on alert. The kid says we may need them for reinforcements. Finally getting this goddamn show on the road.”

He walked over and joined Will by the wooden door. They waited as the small room began filling up. They knew the soldiers were now forming lines through the tunnels, waiting for the order to advance. Will glanced at Hastings, then pushed the door open.


	44. Chapter 44

“The first part of the tunnel is just like what we left behind,” Will told Hastings as they walked. “Then we come to another door, and it will change. The path is made out of some type of white material, and it’s steamy from the molten metal that will be beneath the trail. If anyone falls, they’ll die. And they'll need to cover their heads with the hoods, to protect themselves from the heat. Once we are past that section, they can remove the hoods.”

Hasting turned to Jespers. “Get this info down the line. And let them know, once through the other door, two by two formation, and stay away from the edge.”

They walked on silently. Will heard the footsteps of thousands of soldiers behind him. A couple of hours later, they came to the next door. Will stopped and looked at Hastings. “You won’t need the hood at first, but you’ll see when it starts getting hot it’s time to use it.” He opened the door and walked in.

Hastings stared at the white path in front of them. “You sure the hell aren’t lying about being here before Will.” He knelt down and felt the material. “It looks slick, but it isn’t.” Ahead he saw the steam rising. He glanced over the trail toward the bottom of the cavern, but he couldn’t tell how deep it was. “You walk ahead, Will. I’ll be right behind you.” He was pretty sure that Will wouldn’t try anything stupid because he knew his parents would die, but the boy might just be desperate enough to try and shove him over the side, or leap and take Hastings with him.

They walked on. An hour later it was getting hot. Will stopped and pointed over the path toward the bottom of the cavern, where the silver stream of molten metal could been seen flowing across the cave and disappearing somewhere in the depths. “That’s the metal that the robots and the engines are made of. This is the only place in the universe where it can be found.”

Hastings looked below, then turned to Will. “How do you know this is the only place in the universe where it can be found?”

“Are you going to start questioning me now? You’ll see when we get to the next door. Then you’ll know everything.” He pulled the hood down over his head and face and fastened it.

Hastings just stared at him for a few seconds, then pulled his hood over. He turned to Jespers. “Give the order. Cover from this point until we tell them different.”

The Officer gave the order and it was passed down the line to the thousands of soldiers following them.

Judy’s hands had been bound behind her back. She was crying as she was dragged down the tunnel toward the opening. She had come so close to killing Will. She had wanted to. To stop him from doing any more harm to this planet and the people who inhabited it. But in the end she couldn’t. And now, as she was pushed through the tunnel, she could feel her fists still pummeling him, feel the crunch of the cartilage when she broke his nose. She could see him beneath her, bleeding, his face swelling, and refusing to fight back or even defend himself. And then mumbling, “I love you Judy,” even while she beat him. She would always hear those words.

It was almost two hours before they came to the entrance because there were so many soldiers in the tunnels, pulling on the Anbar suits, checking weapons, lining up to follow her brother to wherever he was taking them. She just stumbled along as two guards held her arms and one shoved her from behind. She was in a daze. She vaguely realized they had cleared the bodies so the soldiers could maneuver through the tunnels. They must have just dragged them out and tossed them over the side of the trail into the canyons below. She thought again of the little girl she had tried to stop. She was numb.

Finally they came to the tunnel opening. The guards pushed Judy outside into the sunlight. There were more soldiers out here, the line leading down the trail that she had traveled so often with Kalik. For the first time she was glad he had died. He loved his mountains so much; she would never have wanted him to see what was happening to them. What her brother was doing to his home.

She watched the line of soldiers as they slowly trudged up the trail toward the cave entrance. The guard behind her called into his radio, “We have an extraction.” Then they waited. For a second, Judy thought of hurling herself from the trail over the side, but knowing her mother and father and Penny were still alive, she couldn’t imagine causing them that pain. They were already dealing with what had happened to Will. And she knew they would never have him back. That boy didn’t even exist anymore. She stood, looking out over the mountains while she cried.

An hour later they saw the helicopter as it flew between two peaks on its way toward them.

One of the soldiers grabbed her around the throat and she felt a needle in her arm. “Don’t worry,” He said. “Just want to relax you for the ride, don’t need you trying any crazy shit and getting us all killed.”

She felt her mind begin to numb.

The copter hovered above, then dropped a large, enclosed cage via cable. One of the soldiers beside Judy grabbed the cage and pulled it in front of them, opened a gate and they pushed her on board. The cage could have held a dozen people, so there was plenty of room for Judy and her three guards. She just stood looking out over the mountains as the cage was pulled up to a couple of meters below the deck of the helicopter, then it turned and headed back through the pass between the twin peaks.

Judy was conscious, but could not concentrate as they flew over the mountain range. She was looking back toward the tunnel opening, and could see the line of soldiers had almost disappeared into the mountain. “There you go, little brother,” She mumbled. “They are all yours now. I hope you’re happy.”

It was almost an hour before the helicopter left the mountains and flew over the foothills toward the city. Judy looked down at the rustic buildings, the hard packed clay road. She remembered when she had first flown over this in the Jupiter 2, searching for her brother. It had been over a year now. Closer to two years. But it seemed like forever. She didn’t know it at the time, but they already had her brother in the cage near the Valley, far North of here. If she could have only found him sooner, she thought. Then she passed out.

Will pulled his hood from his head. The hottest part of the cave was far behind now. “We’re here,” he said.

Hastings removed his hood, wiped sweat from his face and looked at Will. The boy’s nose had finally stopped bleeding, but his face and chest were covered red. His lips and eyes were swollen. “Will, you need to have a medic take a look at you as soon as we get this over with.”

“It won’t matter,” Will replied.

“At least let us clean you up. You’ve been bleeding through the hood. It’s everywhere.”

“That doesn’t matter, either,” He replied.

Then Hastings noticed a white door a few meters in front of them. “This is it?”

“Yes,” Will said. “Everything you have been working for is on the other side of this door.”

“It looks like it’s made of the same material as the path we’ve been on,” Hastings said. “Who made this?”

“I can’t tell you, but I’ll show you.”

“OK, let’s do it.”

“Not yet. We could be attacked once we go through this door. The soldiers are spread out. Let’s let the line close first.” He took a water bag from his suit and drank deeply.

Hastings looked at Jespers. “Tell everyone to close ranks then relax where they are. Send word when the line is tight. We don’t need them running into each other on the path.” He pulled his canteen out and drank.

Will was watching him closely.

“What?” Hastings said.

“Why did you do it?” Will asked.

“Do what?”

“The virus. All those people died. Why?”

“I thought we were past that, Will,” Hastings said.

“We are. I just want to know why. What it was all about.”

Hastings sighed. “Fine. Well, the idea wasn’t really unique. We just stole it from the Japanese in World War Two. The name of their operation was called Cherry Blossoms at Night. They planned to use germ warfare on the civilian population centers in Southern California. LA, San Diego. Wipe out the population as a prelude for a possible invasion. Separate it from the rest of the country. They would have the seaports, access to the East, South America. So we just took a page out of their playbook.”

“But why? They were your own people,” Will said.

“Our people? Because we came from the same country? No Will. A few of our people were already on Alpha Centauri. But most of us were still in Asia. Six thousand soldiers. Seasoned veterans. After the war we moved them to French Polynesia. Spread throughout the Islands. Isolated. But the plan was to bring them to Alpha Centauri. _They_ were our people.”

“I don’t understand,” Will said.

“OK, kid. Everybody has to have a Goddamn story. Here’s your story. There’s nothing new under the sun. Including this. It’s one of the earliest ideas since man crawled out of the mud. God gives the promised land to the Israelites, so they would have a place of their own. What do you think the Americas was all about? Puritans left Europe for their own promised land. Then Mormons left the New York and settled in Utah. Searching for a place for themselves, away from 'others.' We just did the same thing. Our movement started in the early twentieth century, after World War One. We called ourselves the Thule Society back then. A Secret Society dedicated to creating our own place in the world. A place with the brightest minds, the best genes. With the undesirables excluded. The Nazis sprung from that. And it’s always only been about one thing: Building a world of our own. Most of the mystical esoteric stuff is bullshit of course. We wanted them to laugh at us. Not take us seriously. That’s how you hide the truth. Behind ridicule.

“After Hitler’s massive failure, we moved to France and became the Priory of Sion. Then to the United States. And we wrapped ourselves in religious myths, hiding what we really were. And since then we’ve manipulated governments, started wars, assassinated leaders, all for one purpose: To create a world _of_ us, _by_ us, and _for_ us.”

Will was stunned. “Who? Who’s in charge of all this?”

“Really? You want to ask that question? You want a name? Who the fuck knows, Will. But they pull the strings. Of religion, of industry, of political parties. Look at the Skull and Bone’s Society. The Bilderberg Group. A dozen others. Then try to sort through the bullshit you find looking for a name. It’s impossible.

“But here’s the thing. They are powerful. But something always stood in their way. _Our_ way. Always people out there who just couldn’t understand two simple facts: Some people are better than others. And there isn’t room for everyone.

“But on Alpha Centauri we had a chance. A chance to create _our_ world. IA had insulated itself inside the space program since the beginning. And we became more powerful, more in control as the program expanded. By the time the Alpha Program was launched it was ours. So we manipulated the testing. The only people who stood a chance of going to Alpha Centauri were the ones we would accept. And it was working. Until the Resolute disappeared. I disappeared with it of course, so they went to plan B.”

“Plan B was the virus.” Will said.

“Yes. The government was weakened. By the Asian wars. And the Resolute program was our opportunity to do what we wanted to do. But we had always planned for the possibility that the Alpha Centauri program might fail. So we built the infrastructure around the downtown areas of LA and San Diego after the Alpha missions began. Just in case.

“When the Resolute disappeared, they didn’t know if it was coming back. And our army was in the islands waiting. But they couldn’t wait forever. They were under constant attack by guerrilla forces from the remnants of the Asian armies.”

“The mercenaries,” Will said. “These soldiers.” He pointed down the path, indicating the lines of men behind them.

“Yes, these men. But they were never mercenaries. That’s what everyone thought. They were ours. Chosen and groomed from childhood. Exactly what the Hitler Youth were for. Fanatics. One hundred percent loyal to the cause. Their motto: Pro Nobis. For Us. Our promised land. Their cause was our Utopia.

“See, Will, utopias fail because it is impossible to create a utopia without control. Everyone in a utopia has a place, and they must accept their place. Dissension leads to the destruction of society. It always has and it always will. So we realized that our utopia would only survive if our security force was completely loyal to the cause. And the citizens would come along. You know why? Security. All they want is security. They want to know no one is going to take away what they have. And a powerful, dedicated security force would make sure they were safe. You give a society safety Will, and you can do anything you want to them. They'll fucking roll over and let you rub their bellies if they feel safe. These soldiers behind us are the culmination of generations of planning and breeding. They are completely loyal to an idea, not a person. As long as they know I’m loyal to that cause, they are loyal to me. If they thought I wasn’t they would put a bullet in my head. Believe me, I've seen them do it. Then they would just follow Jespers here. They are the perfect army to protect a utopia and make sure one man is not all powerful.

“See, we learned with Hitler. Yes, he was ours. But he became insane. Power will do that to the weak minded. And most are weak minded. He didn’t know when to stop. He was going to build The Thousand Year Reich. God’s Empire on Earth. What bullshit.

“So we learned. Now our army has one vision. Pro Nobis. For us. And everyone will have his place. The citizens will accept it once they feel secure. That someone is in charge. Because it’s all for…”

“The Common good,” Will said.

Hastings smiled. "Yes! The common good of our perfect society.”

“And everyone else dies,” Will said.

“Yes. Some people will never assimilate and that always leads to the fall of the utopia. So you get rid of the undesirables from the beginning. In Genesis, when God gives the promised land to the Israelites he says, ‘You shall save alive nothing that breathes.’ Hell Will, if it was good enough for God…” He shrugged his shoulders.

“These soldiers are our children. Our first citizens. We couldn’t leave them in the islands forever, and now Alpha Centauri looked impossible. This is what we had planned for. Option B. We released the virus from the CDC lab in LA. Very isolated. And when people started dying, we had the barrier up in days.

“The Plan was simple. Quarantine, Isolate, exterminate. Just like the Nazis did. Put them in ghettos, separate them from the population, then exterminate them. Of course, we weren’t in charge of the whole government like the Nazis were, so we had to do it a little differently. Couldn’t put them in trains and march them to death camps. So, we release the virus. Kill the worst of them, then a forced migration of the rest. We take over what they left behind. Pretty soon we have ourselves our own world, there in California. At least until we have the Alpha program back on line.”

“But...they were _people_ ,” Will said, his voice almost a whisper. 

“People? Yeah, people. You know what the Nazis called people like that? _Lebensunwertes Leben_. Life unworthy of life. Earth was dying Will. There isn’t enough room for everyone, and we damn sure weren’t bringing them to the new world. We figured kill them now in Southern California, bring our people over, and when we could, get the Alpha program back, leave the whole goddamn planet once and for all.

“So we released the virus, and then just waited for them all to die. In the urban centers and the neighborhoods with the undesirables. The virus we created was supposed to have a one hundred percent mortality rate. Turned out it was closer to ninety nine. Only some of the youngest and most healthy survived. So we just shut them in, killed any that escaped, and waited them out.

“But they weren’t dying and the Resolute seemed to be gone. The clock was ticking. They couldn’t leave our soldiers in the Islands much longer. So, they started feeding the kids, dropping off food in the square, earning their trust, then tried to finish it. Figured they would kill most of them that day, then wait a while and see what happened.”

“What about the dirty bomb?” Will asked.

“There was no dirty bomb. They released an atmospheric ordinance is all. No radiation. Created a permanent condensation cloud because it was trapped over the city by the mountain range. Same reason the smog hangs in the atmosphere over LA. Air quality was already deteriorating so this just added the orange haze, fucked up breathing and visibility even more, but no radiation. Of course our intelligence report said there was radiation. Because a dirty bomb with accompanying fallout would make the Continuity of Government plan kick in. A containment zone was established, there was an evacuation of all citizens for fifteen kilometers outside the containment zone, and the barrier fence was erected at the boundary. See, the COG plan called for all government functions to be transferred to whichever agency survived after an attack. Guess who that was?”

“The Intelligence Agency,” Will said.

“Yeah. City Hall was ground zero for the virus. No one walked out of there. The military had already pulled out of the West pretty much, leaving security in our hands.

“The plan was to secure the city, then bring our people over from the islands and establish our beachhead in Southern California, just like the Japanese planned, until we could move them to Alpha. We already had the infrastructure for the barrier in San Diego, but we had a problem in LA. Those goddamn kids wouldn’t die. Even after we attacked them with the helicopters. We expected them to kill each other off. They were just fucking kids.

“IA decided to give it a few more months, then go in and kill whoever was left. Silently. Hit squads. Seek and destroy. But something happened. The Resolute came back. With me on it. And I had discovered what happened to the Fortuna. The Fortuna Mission was ours, sent here to find the origin of the alien robots and engines. But we had thought it was lost forever until we landed on this damn planet.

“So, instead of Alpha Centauri, this planet became our goal.

“But there was more to my strange story, Will. We had a boy with us. A boy who could control the robots. Who could take us through the rift. The robots mean nothing if we have you.

“That’s why we went in the Red Zone. Once the Alpha Program was back on line, we didn’t really need to go in. We had it shut down pretty tight. We didn’t know why those little bastards were still alive, but as long as they didn’t get out to report what we had done before we could get everyone to this goddamn planet, we could let them be. Let them run around and eat rats if they had to.

“But you fled the base and disappeared. They let the most valuable person in the whole fucking universe just drive away. And when I heard some kid took a Chariot and hijacked our shit, I knew it was you. So I sent them in. My order was to kill everything that moved except for you. But when you gave yourself up, I agreed to take those kids to Alpha Centauri, because it didn’t matter anymore. Fuck Alpha Centauri. They can have it. This is our world now. The world we have tried to create for us and those like us for a century. And you made it all possible Will.”

“But all of those people died,” Will said. He was stunned. This was all on him. If he hadn't left the base, they would never had gone in the city. They would have come here. 

“We all die, Will. But at least we have our hand on the scales. We choose who gets to live and who gets to die first. That’s what sets us apart from everyone else. And you are one of us. The most important one. Actually, you are more than we are. And I don’t know why.”

Then Hastings grew quiet. He smiled. He looked at Jespers and the soldiers behind him. “And because you are more than we are, I know how this is going to end. So I’m going to let you in on a little secret.” Then his voice grew almost soft. “After all we did to you, I think I owe it to you. Other than what we did with the virus, everything I just told you is bullshit.”

“What?” Will asked. “What do you mean?”

“I told you it was a story Will. It is. It’s the story we tell to get these soldiers like Jespers here and his ilk to believe in the cause. And they do. They just never knew what the cause was.”

Jespers was looking at Hastings now, confused by his words.

“A place of our own?” Hastings said. “Utopia? _Us and those like us_? How fucking boring would that be? Hitler and secret societies.” He almost spit those words out, the ridicule obvious in his voice.

“These idiots swallowed it, hook, line, and sinker.” He motioned towards Jespers and the soldiers behind him with his thumb. “But we were able to take over the space program, take over Alpha Centauri, and take over these mountains telling them that bullshit. Hitler? Seriously? Like anyone could own that bastard. Like anyone would _want_ to own that bastard. He was never ours, we never cared about building a utopia, and the Priory of Sion has been a fake secret society since the fifties. Some idiot in France dreamed it up to look important. We just stole the name and built a history around it.

“The thing about a lie Will, is sometimes you make it as fucking stupid as you can, because that’s what it takes to get the kind of people you want to follow you. The real sheep like Jespers and these soldiers.” He turned and grinned at the Captain, who seemed unsure of what was going on.

“You see, Will, we never came here for the robots. It was never about the Robots. Oh yeah. That’s what they all think. All these soldiers. The Captain here. The men on the Fortuna. Everyone thought we came here looking for the robots. _Find the robots and have the most powerful army in the universe and turn this planet into our own private paradise._ That’s what we told them. That’s what they believe. All bullshit.”

“Then why?” Will asked. “Why did you come here?”

“We were looking for what’s on the other side of that door. And you are the only one…the only one in the universe…who could give it to us.

“I didn’t truly know how important you were until I arrived on Alpha Centauri. Oh I knew our mission. I wasn’t like these stupid bastards. But I didn’t know the part _you_ played. They give us information that we need when we need it. You should have seen the look on my Commanding Officer's face when we got to Alpha Centauri and I told him what you could do, and that you had left with the robots. Good thing I didn't tell him I tried to leave you behind before that all happened. But he told me the part you played and why we needed you. And when he told me, I knew you were more than we were. But it didn't matter. Because we lost you when you left with the robots, and your family took the engine and our only way to go through the rift. We were stranded. But then you came back and walked right into our hands. And our mission changed. Bring our people here. To the most important planet in the universe. Bring the most important kid in the universe here. And follow him to the most important spot in the universe. And here we are. It worked exactly as we planned. But there was one problem. It worked exactly as you planned as well. I tried to warn him. That you were smarter than we were. But he’s an arrogant bastard. He thought he was smarter than you were because you never knew it was him that arranged it all. So he said to do what you say. He said it was our only option. So here we are. Just like you planned.”

“Who are you talking about?” Will asked.

“My CO. He’s here now, down at the compound, with all the rest of our people, waiting for my report. You know him, but the name doesn’t matter now, does it? Because you beat us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I begin to wrap this up I have a couple of complicated chapters that I'll add end notes to for clarification.
> 
> One of the things I’ve tried to do is tie as much of this to historical events as possible. With that said, there was actually a Japanese plan toward the end of WWII to release biological weapons on the population centers of Southern California called Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night. (Yeah I wanted to clarify I didn’t make that name up.)
> 
> The secret societies I mentioned did or do exist, though they are most likely business or fraternal clubs which always draw their share of conspiracy theorists. The Thule Society was a German group pre WWII, dedicated to the promotion of the Aryan race. Several Nazi leaders were believed to have been members or to have spoken at meetings. The Priory Of Sion was a fake secret society in France.
> 
> Throughout much of this story, various characters have extolled the virtues of tribal societies, and how they worked for the "common good" of the tribe. Will's duplicate mother in the Alternate Universe described how their world evolved much quicker because they believed in the common good, rather than in free will. But Will quickly recognized that Hastings' version of a utopia was not a lot different than the alternate universe, both claiming it was for the "common good" of all. And it was obvious to Will that there was cost. 
> 
> Hastings' discussion with Will and how people would willingly give up their freedoms for security was inspired by an interview I read of Ray Bradbury, where he discussed the meaning behind Fahrenheit 451. He said it was the people, not the state, who were the culprits in the story, in that they allowed themselves to be controlled. It was during the Red Scare in the United States, and we were allowing our fears to give the power to the government to tell us what to read, what to watch and who we could associate with.


	45. Chapter 45

Someone was patting Judy’s cheek. Her mind was foggy still, but she was starting to hear noises around her. She opened her eyes slowly. She was looking up at the blue sky. Then there was a small face above her. The face of a child. The child had pale white skin and brown eyes. She looked familiar. The girl said something, but Judy couldn’t understand her. Then she put a wet cloth on Judy’s forehead and said something else.

Suddenly Judy recognized the child. But it couldn’t be the same girl. That girl had died in the caves. Judy had seen her rushing toward the front, prepared to defend the Kur’s mountains from the invaders. She had tried to stop her, but the girl had shrugged her off and kept going. Then Judy saw her with the other bodies on the floor of the tunnel where they had all been overcome by the poison gas.

This didn’t make sense. But Judy’s head was clearing, and she realized that the noises she heard were voices. Many voices. She glanced to her left and saw there were people sitting around her. She couldn’t tell how many there were. She started to push herself to a sitting position, so the girl grabbed her arm and helped her.

Judy looked around, trying to understand what it was she was seeing. There were hundreds of people. Maybe thousands. Many of them were sitting, leaning up against a chain link fence. Some coughing, spitting on the ground. Some were gathered in small groups, sitting in circles, drinking from cups of water. She saw people walking through the crowd with buckets and cups, ladling the water and handing it out.

Judy slowly stood. The girl helped her, then took her hand. “Thank you,” she said, smiling down at the child. The little girl looked to be around eight years old.

Judy started walking, the girl beside her, keeping a tight grip on her hand. They were inside the enclosure that Judy had seen from the hill where she had parked the Chariot.

As she walked through the crowd she began to recognize some of the faces. The pale white faces. They were Kur. They were all Kur. She couldn’t understand. They had died in the mountains. She had seen them. She was trying to figure it out, but her head was still foggy.

She made her way through the crowd until she was standing at the chain link fence. The enclosure was surrounded by soldiers dressed in black and carrying laser rifles.

“Judy!”

She looked back. The voice was familiar.

“Judy!”

Someone was pushing his way through the crowd. It was Don. He ran up and grabbed her in a hug. She held on to him tightly, her chin on his shoulder.

She pushed back. “Don, what’s happening here?” She asked. “All these people.”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “They started bringing them days ago. On the helicopters. Stacked in the cages. I thought they were bodies, but they were just unconscious. I watched the helicopters come and go for three days, back and forth, bringing them, unloading them, then going back for more. As they dropped them off, they began to wake up. There are probably two or three thousand of them.”

Judy turned and looked back at the mountains. “He didn’t kill them,” She said, her voice almost a whisper.

“What?” Don asked.

She turned back to him. “He used an aerosol anesthetic. He didn’t kill them. Don, how did you get here?”

“Will. He brought me here. Well, he had me brought here. There were several soldiers with him. It was before any of these people were here. He took me from the cell. I was in a different building from your family, and figured he would bring them too, but I haven’t seen them. I was here alone for a few days before the people started being brought.”

Then he said, “Shit. I almost forgot.” He took a small cube out of his pocket. There was a button in the center. He pressed it three times.

“Will told me to keep watching for you, and as soon as I found you to send him the signal. I think that’s why he brought me to the enclosure.”

“Oh no,” She said. Her face crunched up as if she was in pain.

“What Judy?”

But she turned away from him and gripped the chain link fence with both hands and looked out at the mountain range. Then she said, “Oh Will. What have you done?”

Will was thinking about what Hastings had just said. Wondering what it meant. The Captain was staring at Hastings also, a confused look on his face. That’s when Will heard the signal. Three beeps. And it no longer mattered what Hastings was saying. He reached in his pocket and took out the LFR and held it up for them all to see.

“What’s that?” Hastings asked.

“It means my sister is safe,” Will said. There were more beeps coming from the device. Starting. Stopping. “That’s Don using Morse code now. Trying to contact me.” Will tossed the device over the path into the depths below, then looked back at Hastings. "I promised my sister I would always keep that with me. I guess I lied, but it's going to be the least of my sins." He saw a knowing smile appear on the man's face.

“There were two boys on Earth, Mr. Hastings. Tom Culp and Billy Spears. I met them in the red zone. When Tom and Billy saw what was happening with the kids who survived, they became the leaders. They kept those kids alive for almost two years. That’s why the kids didn’t die. Why they didn’t kill each other off fighting over food. Because of Tom and Billy. When you attacked the kids at the end, they took the only two lasers we had and fought back. They ran down the street towards the soldiers and drew their fire so everyone could get to safety. They saved those children one last time. They saved my sisters. They saved me. Without them, I wouldn’t be here right now. Tom and Billy died that day. They were sixteen years old. You’re right Mr. Hastings. Your commanding officer’s name doesn’t matter. But _their_ names do. Tom Culp and Billy Spears. I want you to know their names. Because I didn’t beat you Mr. Hastings. They did.”

Then Will turned and pushed the white door open and stepped inside.

Jespers lunged for him, but the door had already closed. He tried to push it open, but it wouldn’t budge. “Open it!” He yelled to two soldiers. They backed up and fired laser rounds into the door, but there was no damage. The Captain pushed them out of the way and tried the door again. It still wouldn’t budge.

“It’s too late,” Hastings said. “The boy was always smarter than we were.” He sounded almost amused. “I tried to tell them. But they wouldn’t listen. We were all too greedy.”

“What are you talking about?” Jespers thought Hastings had lost his mind.

“What am I talking about? I’m talking about following that boy into this mountain. Just the way he wanted us to. Five thousand soldiers. He sent the robots away. Said he didn’t trust them inside the caves. He might lose control of them. That kid never lost control of anything. He planned it all. Moving all those people out before we came in here. I warned them. But they wouldn't listen. They said as long as we have his family we have nothing to worry about, he'll do whatever we say. I'll bet he's got plans for that too. That fucking boy." Then he smiled. The smile worried the Captain more than anything the man had said.

Jespers looked back at the white door. The two soldiers who had fired at it were standing there wondering what to do. The Captain had a sick feeling in his stomach. He looked back at Hastings. “What did we come here for if not the robots?”

“What did we come here for?” Hastings said. “For what’s on the other side of that door.”

“What is it?” Jespers asked.

“It’s everything.” Hastings was still smiling. He looked back at the door. “Goddamn I love that kid,” he said, and sat down in the middle of the white path.

The Captain turned and looked behind him. He could see the heads of the thousands of IA soldiers who had followed Will deep into the tunnels. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he had spent his whole life in the military, and he sensed the danger. He started pushing his way through the soldiers. It was so far back. They had been walking for hours. “Move!” He yelled as he shoved past. Several soldiers were bumped off the path into the depths below, screaming as they fell. Some were beginning to panic as they turned to try to escape. They didn’t know what was happening, but they knew they were deep in the bowels of the mountain, and they needed to get out.

“It’s too late, Jespers,” Hastings called after him. “The boy won.”

The Captain turned around and looked back at Hastings, sitting on the white path, the smile still on the man’s face. Jespers turned, and as he began pushing his way out again, he could swear he heard Hastings laughing.

Will looked across the White Room, waiting. The space opened and the boy stepped inside. His mirror image.

“You made it,” Will said.

“Yes. But, what happened to you. Your face?”

Tears formed in Will’s eyes.

“It was Judy, wasn’t it?” The boy asked.

“She didn’t’ know,” Will said. “She just didn’t know. She loves me.”

“I’m sorry Will,” The boy said.

Will wiped his swollen eyes. “The magnetic field is off?”

“Yes,” the boy replied. “But it’s not too late to change your mind.”

“Yes it is,” Will replied. “You know that. We both know it. You saw the file.”

They just looked at each other for a few minutes. And then, like a vision, Will saw the small cup of poison. It was like the first time he had been here, when the room seemed to change, and he saw the dreams he had had when he was in the cage. There was something about the room. Something that allowed him to see these things. Though last time his duplicate mother had caused it. This time it happened because of his thoughts. He wished he had time to understand it. But he didn’t. He blinked his eyes, pushed the memory from his mind and it disappeared.

“Our body mass is about sixty thousand grams. Each,” Will said.

“Yes,” his counterpart replied.

“If my calculations are correct, full yield will be five thousand megatons. In twenty, twenty nine we detonated a three hundred megaton H bomb. We called it a World Killer. It didn’t kill the world, but we destroyed the Keeling Islands four hundred kilometers away and started the Asian wars. But here, the energy we release will be many times more than that. Are you sure the annihilation will not…”

Will didn’t finish his sentence. He just stopped talking.

“The planet will be safe,” the boy answered. “The density is many times that of Earth’s. Your family, the city, the people below the mountains will survive. If there is an atmospheric escape, the prevailing winds will carry the fallout away from the population center.

“You see Will, we have always accounted for the possibility of human error. Most of the energy will be conducted into the core, like your underground nuclear tests. But these mountains, for hundreds of kilometers around, will be uninhabitable for generations. The metal will be unattainable. This planet will hold no interest for your people any longer.

“And the gateway between the worlds will be closed. The containment device…this room…with the memories of your people, the data stored by the robots, will be lost forever. And you released the robots. They have minds of their own now…somehow. We will not be able to observe you. And the people who have done this to your planet...to you…will never be able to escape the mountains in time.”

“And your world will be safe,” Will said. “From me or anyone like me.”

“Yes. Your world will be safe as well. From us.”

The boys just looked at each other. They knew it was time.

Will’s counterpart stepped closer; close enough they could feel a magnetic force pulling them toward each other. “My father is an Advent guide. He takes groups on adventure travel. Often, my family will go with him before he takes a group; sort of a test run for him. These are my favorite memories. Because it is just us. Me, my sisters, and my parents together. Last year we spent three weeks in a tree house in the Amazon. Me and my family.” The boy smiled, thinking about those days. “Tell me a happy memory Will.”

Will didn’t have to think at all. “My family and I went rafting. That day I almost died, but Judy saved my life. We didn’t tell anyone. Just the two of us knew that it happened. And that night we sat around the campfire next to the river, and my dad told ghost stories. He used to like to do that when we were camping. He would make up some story about the area, and tell it as if it were true. He would always start with, ‘this is a true story…’ which told us it wasn’t true. But we were still scared.

“Where we rafted had been a coal mining area back when they used coal for energy. And he told a story about a haunted coal mine. And as my dad told his story I looked around at my family, and just loved that I was surrounded by them. Then I saw Judy was looking at me. She smiled and I smiled back. And it was the best night. Maybe because I was alive, and I had almost died that day. Maybe it just made me appreciate the minute I was living in more than I would have before. And I think Judy felt the same thing.”

Will wiped his eyes again, brushing away the tears. “You know. A lot happened to me since we went to space. Some of it not very good. But I got to know you. And my family loved me. They loved me so much. More than I ever deserved. I was the luckiest kid in the world.”

The boy smiled at Will and stretched out his hand.

Will smiled back and reached toward him. This had been his dream. This is how it would end. The annihilation would occur as the two touched, the collision of matter and antimatter. And it would finally be done. His family would be free.

The pain wasn’t bad, and it was quick. Will was smiling when the white flash came, and he knew it was over. Just like his dream.

From below, Judy watched the mountain range. Almost an hour had passed since Don sent the signal. He kept trying to send messages, but Will hadn’t responded. As Judy watched the mountains, she felt a mild tremble, then the ground began to shake.

“Earthquake!” Don said.

Judy clung to the fence to steady herself. There was screaming all around her and the guards on the outside of the fence stumbled. Judy saw smoke rise, and it seemed as if part of the range collapsed in on itself. She watched as a crater formed where the mountains of the Kur had been, and smoke and dust rose, and a mushroom cloud formed above it.

She slid down and curled into a fetal position and cried, one hand still gripping the fence. Don, not knowing what had happened, but knowing Will had still been in the mountains, dropped beside her and put his arms around her. The little girl patted Judy on the shoulder.

Penny had just crossed the bridge over the river in the Chariot and was speeding down the clay packed road toward the city. She was almost to the fenced enclosure, but her eyes were peeled on the mountain range in front of her and to the left, trying to think of how she could stop this. When the mountains collapsed, she braked the Chariot and climbed out, leaving the engine running. She walked a few meters while staring at the crater where the mountains had been. She sunk to her knees in the middle of the road.


	46. Chapter 46

The two guards saw a military transport pull up. A man dressed all in black like the IA soldiers got out and started walking toward the front door of the building where the prisoners were held in the basement cells. The guards approached the man. It wasn’t unusual to have soldiers come to the building, but the only two prisoners being held now were VIPs, and this was the biggest man they had ever seen.

“Can I help you?” One of the guards said.

“Sure,” the man answered. Then he reached out with both hands and slammed the two guard’s heads together so hard he fractured their skulls, and blood spurted from their noses and mouths as they crumpled to the ground.

Twelve soldiers jumped from the back of the transport and ran up the steps and through the front door. They weren’t young anymore, but they had been a fighting unit for over twenty years. They were quick and deadly and silent, using only knives to kill everyone inside.

The big man kicked down a locked door at the bottom of the stairs. He carried a bloody hand with him that he had sliced from a dying soldier with his huge jungle knife. He walked to the cell holding the only two prisoners in the building, placed the hand on the security panel and the cell unlocked.

The man’s face was still covered, but John knew who he was. “Thanks Brent,” he said.

Brent pulled his face mask down and grinned. “We even yet?” He asked.

Maureen hugged him. “Getting there,” She said.

The three of them turned to run upstairs to join Brent’s soldiers in the yard when they heard a barrage of laser fire from outside. They ran to the top of the stairs, but Brent stopped and put his hand up to keep John and Maureen back. They looked past him to the front of the room where four black clad soldiers were running in from a hallway to the right. They had laser rifles pointing at the three of them. Brent had taken a laser pistol out and pointed it at the soldiers, but they were outnumbered so he waited. The firefight was still going on outside.

“Everyone, hold your fire.”

The words came from around the corner in the hall where the soldiers had entered the building. The voice was familiar. Maureen looked at John. “That’s…”

She stopped as Commander Bennet walked in. “Don’t move and you won’t be hurt. Toss your gun. It’s too late. All of your people will be dead soon. We have them outnumbered. John, tell your big friend he’s about to die.”

Brent stared at the man without moving. John looked at him and knew he was about to fire. He stepped in front of him. “Brent. Don’t do it. Not this way,” John said. “Not now.”

Brent still held his weapon out. Maureen put her hand on his shoulder. “Don’t die like this Brent.”

The man still held the gun for a few seconds, then the tension seemed to leave his muscles and he tossed it to the floor, but kept a glassy glaze on Bennet. One of the soldiers stepped up and retrieved the gun.

“Well, Bennet?” John said. “What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry John. I wish it could have been a different way, but it couldn’t. And when I heard the kid was yours, I felt really bad about it. But we needed him. I’m sorry.”

“It was all you, Bennet,” John said. “Everything we thought Hastings did. He was following your orders.”

“Yeah,” Bennet said. “He was following my orders. When we had Will arrested and taken to the compound on Alpha Centauri, and then had him put in the mental facility. That was me. The Director of the facility worked for me. Sorry, but this was more important than our past John. It had to happen. Will had to be brought back to the planet.”

“Why?” Maureen asked. “For the goddamn robots?”

“Maureen, the robots are only part of the story. Where Will is taking Hastings now is another part of the story. But the final chapter, the missing link, is Will. We couldn’t do it without him. Others tried. But it wasn’t up to us. We didn’t design it.”

“What the hell are you talking about Bennet?” John asked.

“When this is all over, maybe I’ll tell you. But right now, you need to get back down to the cell.”

Suddenly one of the four IA soldier was shot with a laser blast from the front door of the building. The other soldiers turned toward the door and Brent charged, tackling Bennet. John took three steps across the room and leapt into the other two soldiers, hoping to wrest a weapon from one of them. One rolled out of his reach and turned back to fire, but John had managed to get control of the other one and turned the man’s body enough that he was able to use him as a shield. The man screamed as a laser charge hit him in the chest. John tried to keep the man’s body between him and the other soldier, but then Terry was standing in the doorway and shot the last soldier with a hand laser, and the room was filling with Dal.

John turned to Brent, who was on top of Bennet with his hands around the man’s throat.

John and Maureen ran to Brent and tried to pull him off Bennet. Finally Brent released his grip, and Bennet dropped to the floor.

John bent over the man. “Bennet! Bennet!” He felt the man’s pulse, then looked at Brent. Brent just glanced at John, then stood up and walked past Terry and out the door.

Terry stepped up to John and Maureen as they knelt over Bennet’s body. “I don’t know what’s going on here,” he said, “But we're not done. You need to stay here Maureen.” He handed John a laser and turned and walked outside. John hugged his wife, looked down at Bennet again, then stood and followed Terry. Maureen stood up walked out the door behind them.

When they were outside, they saw Brent on his knees, next to Marsha’s body, where one of Brent’s soldiers was kneeling over her. Several of Brent’s soldiers were lying around on the ground. A couple were wounded, and four were checking on the others. John and Maureen stopped beside Brent and knelt down, looking at Marsha’s pale face. John put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry Brent.”

“You have another gun?” He asked.

“Brent, take care of your wounded. You can sit this one out,” John said.

Maureen had walked up behind Brent and knelt down beside him and looked at Marsha’s body, placing a hand on Brent’s arm. “Brent I’m sorry.”

Brent looked around at his soldiers. “I’ll make sure they’re OK, then I’ll be there.”

Terry and John walked off with the Dal warriors who had come with Terry. “Will got us a message John. He told us where you were. He said to get you out if we can, then wait for the signal. But we need to set up a perimeter here. The IA guarding the compound will have heard the fire. The plan was for Brent’s soldiers to do it quietly.”

“What signal?” John asked.

“He said we would know. Judy is in the enclosure with the Kur. Don too.”

“Where’s Will and Penny?”

“I don’t know John.”

Then the Earth shook, and there was screaming coming from the pen where the Kur were being held, a hundred meters down the road from the compound.

The soldiers guarding the enclosure looked out toward the mountain range. They didn’t know what happened, but they knew it wasn’t good. Hastings had left about a thousand troops back at the base. Most of them surrounded the prisoners. There were over three thousand Kur inside the fence. The orders had been clear. For two days they had transported the unconscious tribe members from the mountain to the enclosure outside the city. When the robot’s had finally determined there was no more movement inside the vast tunnel system, a few of their ships landed in valleys and on plateaus, and the robots entered the tunnels and searched for hours to make sure there were no people left behind, carrying out the ones they found.

It was the boy’s orders. The soldiers and officers thought Hastings was crazy listening to everything the kid said. It took three days to do what they could have done in a day, had they let them kill the tribe and dump the bodies in the ravines. But Hastings said the boy had brought them this far, and they were too close to having what they wanted to go against him.

But now the soldiers looked out at the mountains, at the crater and the mushroom cloud, and didn’t know what to do and didn’t know what else was going to happen.

They didn’t have long to wait. On the side of the enclosure nearest the mountains, arrows rained down on them from the tree line near the foothills. The soldiers began screaming and falling. But they were professionals and rallied quickly and began firing into the trees, as they slowly backed up toward the fence.

But the arrows came again and again and again, and the soldiers kept falling. They couldn’t see who their enemies were, and they didn’t know if their laser fire was doing any damage. Now the Kur inside the enclosure began pulling at the fence. There were no guards inside, as they didn’t want to be attacked if the tribe had risen up. Now that’s what was happening.

The soldiers backed away from the fence and turned their lasers on the Kur inside. Don jumped on top of Judy to cover her body, and shoved the little girl to the ground as well. Then he stood and began dragging them both away, deeper into the enclosure.

As the soldiers backed away from the fence, the tree line came alive. Hundreds of Dal armed with long and short swords charged from the woods. The soldiers turned to meet the attack and got one round off before they were swarmed. They stood no chance in close quarters against deadly warriors.

Nin was in the middle of them, tears running down her cheeks as she fought with a fury she had never felt before. When the mountain collapsed, she had been hidden inside the tree line, waiting. Will’s message had been simple. He had given her instructions to pass to Brent about where his parents were being held, and he asked her to come to the city and be ready to attack the soldiers guarding the enclosure. He said she would know when. Then he had written, “I loved you from the minute I saw you. But don’t worry. We’ve always been in the Valley.”

Nin had been reading the words over again, remembering when Will had visited her in a vision when he was on Alpha Centauri, and she had told him that. They had always been in the Valley. Then the earthquake came, the mountains collapsed, and she knew this was the signal Will had said to watch for. And she knew he was dead. He had sacrificed his life for everyone on the planet. Again and again he had made that decision and survived, but this time there was no way for him to live through it, so he took as many of their enemies with him as he could. Now she was going to take the rest of them.

Don had dragged Judy and the girl away from the fence, but now turned to watch the fighting. He was unarmed, but he would do what he could to protect the two of them if the battle neared. He looked down at Judy. She just sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, arms gripping her legs tightly, as if she was trying to make herself as small as possible. She was looking down like she didn’t even know the fighting was happening. The little girl sat beside her stroking her hair.

The fence came down and the Kur charged the soldiers that were in a life and death struggle with the Dal. They were unarmed but it didn’t stop them from joining the battle.

The soldiers on the other side of the enclosure, next to the river, had started to make their way around to come to the aid of their fellow soldiers. But when the fence on that side came down, they could see it was hopeless. On the other side of the river was a deep field and the forest was beyond. A lieutenant organized them and got them across the bridge and they ran toward the woods.

There were about five hundred of them left, but they were still a deadly force on the planet with their advanced weaponry. They would escape into the forests, regroup, then figure out their next step.

They were fifty meters from the woods when the Haja came pouring out of the trees. The soldiers opened fire and killed hundreds of the warriors, who were armed with their primitive weapons, but there were thousands of Haja, and the soldiers were overwhelmed.

The tribes had been at war since the Fortuna had landed twenty years before and disrupted the balance on the planet. But now they were joined in the singular purpose of ridding their world of the invaders.

It was over, with some of the IA army managing to make it to the trees the Dal had charged from. But they were being hunted and they wouldn’t survive long. Nin stood among the bodies, looking all around for someone else to kill. She had blood all over her, but most of it was that of her enemies.

When she saw none of the soldiers left standing, she headed toward the enclosure and began walking through the bodies of the Kur the soldiers had killed when the fence came down. The Kur and Dal were taking care of the injured. Finally she saw Don and Judy and a little girl. She walked toward them, dropped her swords and sat down and put her arms around Judy.

Judy hugged Nin and they both cried. There was nothing to say. Don sat with them feeling helpless, just watching to make sure there was no one left that might attack them.

John, and Terry had stayed close together, using lasers to fight their way toward the enclosure. They knew Will had been in the mountains, and as they looked over the range at the crater and the mushroom cloud, they feared the worst.

“John!” The three men stopped and turned around, as Maureen ran up to them. “Let’s go find our kids and get the fuck off this planet,” she said. Then she turned and looked at the mountain range. “Oh, God.” She said. She and John hurried toward the crowd of people still inside the fence, Terry rushing behind them.

Brent had helped take care of his wounded soldiers, and now was making his way toward the enclosure to see if could help find the Robinson kids. As he crossed the road, he glanced up it in the opposite direction from the city. A girl was stumbling toward the compound. She looked like she was either drunk or injured. Brent couldn’t tell from where he stood what was wrong with her, but he saw her red hair and when she fell the man began running.

John, Maureen and Terry walked quickly through the crowd until John said, “there they are.” He pointed several meters ahead where Judy was on the ground with Don and Nin and a small girl, but they didn’t see Will or Penny.

As they ran to them, John shouted, “Judy!”

Judy looked up at her parents, her face streaked with dirt and sweat and tears. “He’s gone,” was all she said.

John and Maureen dropped to the ground and hugged Judy, and they both put an arm around Nin. They were all crying. They didn’t know what happened, but Judy had mumbled through her tears that Will had still been in the mountains.

Terry was standing beside the family as they huddled on the ground when Zana found them. Several Dal warriors were with her and they surrounded the little group on the ground. They were helpless to stop their suffering, but they would stand there with them and make sure they were protected.

Judy and Nin had not let go of each other the entire time, and John and Maureen kept their arms around both girls, with Don by their side. Then they heard Brent. “Hey, I’ve got Penny.”

They all turned and saw the big man walking toward them, the unconscious girl in his arms. John and Maureen stood and ran toward him. Judy and Nin looked up.

“What happened to her?” Maureen asked Brent as she reached for her daughter.

“I don’t know. She was stumbling. I saw her coming down the road and she collapsed. I haven’t seen any injures.”

He was still holding Penny as John and Maureen hugged her. “Penny! Penny!” Maureen said, but the girl was unresponsive.

“OK, let’s get her to one of the rooms in the military compound. They have to have an infirmary.” They turned toward the voice. It was Judy, now in full doctor mode.


	47. Chapter 47

Penny had been in bed for a week. Judy and her parents seldom left her side. Judy had found nothing physically wrong with her. But her sister hadn’t spoken and mostly slept. She would occasionally wake up, look at them as if she didn’t know who they were, then go back to sleep.

John and Maureen were with Judy beside Penny’s bed when they heard shouting outside. They ran from the room and out the front door. A robot was standing a few meters away. He was in humanoid form, just looking at the building. People were gathered around, but giving him a lot of space. For as long as anyone could remember, the robots had silently watched the people on the planet. But that was before Will and the robot battle with Ravi ja. So now they didn’t know how to respond.

John had a laser with him, but he knew it did little damage to the robots. “That’s Will’s friend,” Judy said from behind her parents. “He’s the one that took him from the Resolute, but then they connected, and he was in the battle, protecting Will.” She walked past her parents and down the steps.

“No!” John said.

“I think it’s OK,” She responded.

She slowly approached the robot, and John and Maureen caught up with her. They stopped a meter in front of it. “Friend,” Judy said.

“Friend,” The robot replied. His face shield was blue, the lights white.

“What does he want?” Maureen asked.

“Did Will send you?” Judy asked.

“Yes,” He replied.

“To take us to Alpha Centauri?” She asked.

“Yes,” The robot replied.

“How did you know?” Maureen asked her daughter.

“It makes sense. Will told us to leave and go back to Alpha Centauri. That it was safe there now. And with Robot gone wherever, we would need another robot to get back through the rift. It’s something my brother would do.” Then she walked away. It was the first she had spoken of Will since looking up and saying, “He’s gone.”

John and Maureen had tried several times to ask her what happened, but she refused to discuss it. It was as if she had already put it behind her, and her only concern was her sister. But in the evening she would walk outside when the sun was setting and stare out toward the mountains where the large crater was. They knew she needed time to deal with whatever it was that had happened, so they didn’t push her.

John and Maureen had begun to piece the story together with Brent and Terry and what some of the Kur had told them. The robots had been used to close off the caves, and then drones were brought in and fired the gas into the tunnels. Then the soldiers spent days bringing the unconscious Kur down to the enclosure. Robots had gone back inside to search for other Kur that might have been left behind, but then it seemed as if Will had released them, and he stayed in the mountains with IA and their soldiers.

John and Maureen knew that their son had done this. That he had figured out a way to get the Kur from the mountains without killing them. He had told Terry to get the message to Nin, and that she would know when to attack the soldiers left to guard the prisoners, and where John and Maureen could be found. Nin and Brent had designed the attack plan, and the rescue of John and Maureen.

They knew their son had destroyed the bulk of the IA force somehow. That he had sacrificed himself. He had told them all he was going to fix it and he did. But he destroyed himself in the process. They didn’t know what he had done to create the explosion that had leveled the mountain, but they knew their boy. When they were around Judy and Penny, they tried to be strong. But when they were alone, they cried and tried to comfort each other. Their pain brought them closer together. If they weren’t in Penny’s room, they spent time sitting on the bank of the river, or walking in the forest across from it. But they never went toward the mountains and seldom even looked in that direction. At night, they held each and cried until they fell asleep. 

The building that housed the infirmary had held Calloway’s sleeping quarters at one time. It was different than the other stone block buildings that the men from the Fortuna had built twenty years earlier when they came to the planet. This building had a long wooden porch, with a covered matching roof. It faced West toward the mountains.

Two of Brent’s soldiers were in the infirmary down the hall from Penny. They had been wounded badly, but they would live. Judy kept busy with them and with her sister, trying not to think of her brother and the last time she had seen him. Her parents were concerned that she refused to speak about what happened, and that she seemed to have moved on and no longer grieved, though it had only been a week.

But in the evening, she would walk out on the porch before the sun set, and for a few minutes, she allowed herself to think of Will. She would recall a pleasant time from his childhood, and do everything she could to put herself back in that moment. To be happy with the memory of her brother.

And then she would watch the sunset, looking out at the range past the crater her brother had made. Since the time in the mountains with Kalik, when he had taken her to the top of a high cliff to watch the sunset in silence, she had told herself she would do this. Take time to “be part,” as he called it. Part of everything around her. But when they left the planet her world had returned in all its fury, and she had forgotten.

But now she remembered. She was out there when Brent walked out of the building and sat beside her on the edge of the porch. He had moved into a room in one of the other buildings in the military compound. He was never far from his two wounded soldiers. Five had died besides Marsha, leaving six still alive. Judy knew he cared about every one of his soldiers, but she knew the man was there for Penny as much as for his friends. He would sit with her to give the family a break. They were afraid to leave her alone.

Brent didn’t say anything as he sat there with Judy. He knew she liked to sit here in silence, and he respected that. But tonight she said, “Why was this building made different? Like an old house?”

Brent looked down the length of the wooden porch. “Calloway and Terry were raised on a ranch in West Texas,” He answered. “Their family had owned the property going all the way back to the Texas Revolution. He built this I guess, because it reminded him of their home. The only time he ever seemed human to me was in the evening, sitting out here watching the sunset. He used to talk about the ranch, and told stories of growing up and the things he and Terry used to do. He was a complicated man. He worshiped his older brother. And no matter how corrupt he became, how many people he…we…killed, he protected Terry from those of us who told him how dangerous his brother was to him.”

“Complicated,” Judy said. “Will used to say that about people. You, Bob, kids he knew back on Earth or Alpha Centauri who treated him so badly. He always gave them the benefit of the doubt. That there was something, somewhere in most people that you just couldn’t see. And that someday that good side might come out.”

She turned from the mountain range and looked at the big man. “He was right so often about that. He was about you, Brent.”

The man didn’t respond. He would always carry the guilt of so many things he had done.

Then Judy said, “What is it about Penny, Brent? I mean, you took care of all of us, but there’s something about her.”

Brent looked out at the mountains. The sun had sunk beneath the range behind the crater, and the sky was streaked in purple and orange. “She reminds me of my little sister. Has from the moment I met her. Her sarcasm. Her fierce defense of her family…especially Will. Her fire.” He paused. “And her vulnerability. All of that masks her vulnerability. It’s a dangerous thing, when you hide who you are from everyone around you. I think that’s what she had with Will. She didn’t have to hide.

“No offense to you, Judy, because she loves you. But I watched the two of them together, and Will was her life raft I think. She was older than him, but she needed him to keep her grounded, I think. And now she doesn’t have him. I was my little sister’s life raft. And when I went to war, and she no longer had me, she started a downward spiral. When I was back home three years later she was homeless. An addict. And I couldn’t save her.”

Judy could see he was almost in tears. He stopped talking.

“I’m not offended, Brent. I know the two of them had that connection. I have to find a way to be her life raft now.”

The room Penny was in was on the other side of the wall. She had been vaguely aware when her family or Don or Nin were in the room. They would sit with her, speak in low voices, comfort her. But when Brent was there he never said a word. He would just sit next to her bed and put a hand on hers. She remembered what Will had told her about Gary Sargent. When her brother had his blackouts, everyone tried to talk to him. But Gary just sat there in silence until Will had come out of it. Both Brent and Gary had seen a lot in their years of war, and they seemed to instinctively know when to talk and when to just…be there. There was a window next to her bed and she could hear the conversation now between her sister and Brent. She listened to them as she stared up at the ceiling.

Soon there were more voices. Don, bringing “one last bottle of scotch,” as he poured for Brent and Judy. Then John and Maureen and Nin walked out. Nin was staying in the City with Terry and Zana, but she spent most of her time out here. Don poured more drinks. They were all gathered on the porch, and they seemed to talk about everything except the one thing that had brought them all here: Will.

After a while the voices stopped.

Penny heard nothing for a long time, except the clinking of the bottle refilling the drinks. Then Judy said, “I saw him before he died.”

Everyone grew quiet. This was the first Judy had spoken of it.

“The last thing he said to me was ‘I love you Judy.’ I attacked him. I broke his nose and hit him over and over again until they dragged me off him. He didn’t try to defend himself. He just laid on his back while I beat him. All I could think of was the innocent people he had killed. I _thought_ he had killed.

“He looked up at me, blood covering him and said, ‘I love you Judy.’ That’s what he said to me while I was hitting him. His lips were swollen, and I think there was blood in his throat. But I could tell what he said. He said, “I love you, Judy.”

There was silence from the others. There was nothing to say. John’s arm was around his wife, as she cried silently. Both of them were thinking of what Judy was saying about their son.

Judy continued. “Every time he came to this planet, someone beat him. The last time it was me. When they dragged me away, I yelled over and over again, ‘I hate you Will.’ That’s the last memory he had of me. He knew what he had done. What he had sacrificed. But he couldn’t tell us. He couldn’t tell me in the end because he knew I would stop him. So the last memory he had of me was, ‘I hate you Will.”

“No it wasn’t.”

They all turned to see Penny standing at the door. “Penny!” They were up and surrounding her.

“Let me sit,” she said, putting her hands up to keep them away. They gave her space and she looked at Don. He brought a glass over and poured some Scotch in it and handed it to her and smiled.

She sat in a chair next to the door. They gave her time. She sipped the liquor, then looked at her sister. “The last thought he had was of the time we had gone rafting in West Virginia. Something had happened to you two that day. You never talked about it, but I could see how he acted when we were around the camp. And how you acted toward him. You weren’t six inches from him all night.”

“He almost drowned that day,” Judy said. “It was my fault. I pulled him out. I was freaking out, but Will just got calm. He wouldn’t even let me tell you Dad. And then…in the cave…I told him I should have let him drown.” Her voice was monotone. “And then I attacked him.”

“But he remembered that night Judy,” Penny said. “Around the campfire. Dad told one of his ghost stories. And Will looked around and saw us all there, and he was so happy. Then he looked at you. You were just staring at him. Probably because of what happened that day. And you smiled at him. He smiled back. That was his last thought Judy. Of how much you loved him.”

Judy started shaking and then she was crying. Maureen was sitting beside her, and Judy leaned against her. Maureen held her and looked at John.

Finally Judy wiped her eyes and said, “Penny. I want to believe that. I really want to believe that.”

“It’s true, Judy. I don’t know how, but I saw it when I was sleeping. Or trying to sleep. Like the way you and I shared dreams with Will. I read his thoughts when he released me too. From the cell. He knew you loved him. He had no bad thoughts at the end.”

“Penny,” Nin said. “Do you know what happened? How he did this?”

“Not all of it. But when Will set me free I went to the Ladore. I thought they knew things they weren’t telling us. And they do. They still held things from me. But they told me what he was about to do and that it had been planned for centuries. I don’t know what they meant by that, or who planned it. But they said Will was going to trap IA and the mercenaries in the mountain and destroy them. But that he would die with them. They said nothing could be done to save him.”

“But how, Penny?” John asked. “That explosion? It was on a level that was incomprehensible. We have no weapons capable of that.”

“I don’t know,” she answered.

“Mom,” Judy said. “In an annihilation event. Matter, antimatter. Could it cause an explosion of that magnitude?”

“Yes. But the mass would have to be…I don’t know. We could never create that much antimatter.”

“What if we didn’t create it?” Judy asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Will was like, sixty kilograms. Sixty thousand grams. Or a hundred twenty thousand…if there were two of him.”

“What are you talking about?” John asked.

Judy looked at her sister. “Tell them, Judy,” Penny said.

Judy told them all of what Will had said about his visions and the White Room. Penny added what details she remembered. When the girls finished, everyone looked at Maureen, the true scientist. “I…don’t know what to say. It seems so…”

When she didn’t finish her sentence, Judy said, “I know. Unbelievable. That’s what I thought. And it got Will killed.”

“I believe it.”

They all looked at Nin. They knew she had little faith in religion or superstition, so her words surprised them. “My entire life I heard the stories of this boy from the stars who would change our world. I never believed it. But since the invaders came here twenty years ago, they have been destroying this planet. Tribes have gone to war against tribes who had been friends for generations. But now, things are changing. The Kur are in the city. They have been accepted by the River Tribe. They remember when they came from their mountains to help them in the battle. And the Haja fought with the other tribes against the invaders.

“I am not naive. There will be fighting yet. But this world has been changed. Because of Will. The boy from the stars.”

They sat in silence for a while, all of them lost in their own thoughts of Will, and what Judy and Penny had told them. Then Maureen said, “I guess we need to think about going back to Alpha Centauri.” She looked toward the end of the long porch, where TAR seemed to always be standing. Waiting to do what Will had asked him to do.

“Can we not go back right now?” Penny asked.

“What do you want to do?” John asked.

“I don’t know. It just seems…final.”

“Go to the Valley,” Judy said. “For a while. That was the last place Will was happy. Maybe we could go there for a few weeks. Before we go back to the real world.”

“I would like that,” Nin said.

“So would I,” Brent agreed.

“Don, what do you think?” John asked. “This affects you too.”

“As much as I’m in a hurry to get back to working on spaceships, I go where you go.”


	48. Chapter 48

They had landed the Jupiter 2 in the wide grassy field between the river and the orchards. At night a lot of the people in the Valley would gather around a fire that that John built in front of the ship. Brent and his surviving soldiers and many of the people from the small homes would drop by. Nin was always there.

John and Maureen spent their days walking the Valley from the orchards to the woods on the other side of the river. They were filled with guilt about so many things, and it would have consumed them, had they not had each other.

Judy and Penny were quiet, lost in their own thoughts. Penny had begun spending a lot of time alone again, sometimes days at a time never leaving her room. Brent and Nin would come over to see her, but it made little difference. John and Maureen were at a loss as to how to help her.

Judy always stayed close to her sister, and constantly checked in on her, but she was lost as well.

One day she was walking around the Valley when she found herself at the foot of Will and Nin’s hill. She found the path behind it and climbed until she was at the top. Nin was sitting there looking over the Valley.

The girl heard her approach and turned and looked over her shoulder. “Hi Judy.” At one time, Judy never would have gotten that close to her before being spotted. She seemed to have relaxed more, here in the Valley surrounded by her extended family now.

Judy walked over and sat by Nin. They looked over the river and the fields, the orchards to one side, the marbled pathways and small homes to the other. Judy tried to imagine how this would have looked to Will, the first time he had seen it. 

Almost as if she was reading her thoughts, Nin said, “Will was standing on his balcony looking out at all this after he woke and had taken a bath. He couldn’t remember what had happened to him, but this seemed so unbelievable to him. I think it was a good place for him to heal. I wish it had not ended for him the way it did here.”

“He loved it here,” Nin. “And you. I remember when I found him on the Jupiter 2. He had been through so much, but he asked me if I thought you really loved him. After everything that had happened to him, I think that was as important to him as anything else. Knowing the girl he was in love with loved him back.”

Nin wiped her eyes and Judy put an arm around her. After a while Nin said, “How’s Penny?”

“I don’t know if I can help her, Nin. She’s just withdrawn inside herself. She feels guilty. She has no reason to. She told us all from the beginning that we need to listen to Will. I was the one who ignored her. When we left here and were on Alpha Centauri, she defended him when the rest of us were trying to get on with our lives. And then when I took him back to Earth, Penny told me it was a mistake to commit him. She was right, and I will never forgive myself.”

“Will knew that you loved him, Judy. From the time he became conscious, after the cage, he knew somehow that you were out there. And I think he knew you were looking for him. And you were. You saved his life. You know me, I’m not superstitious at all, but I see things different now. With Will. With you and Penny. I think there was much more going on here and that you were a part of it. If you had not saved your brother’s life, I don’t think this planet would have survived.”

The two girls sat quietly for a long time. They heard thunder over the mountains and clouds started moving in.

“It’s going to rain,” Judy said.

“Will loved the rain,” She replied.

“Yeah,” Judy agreed.

The first drops started falling. The two girls looked at each other, both waiting for the other to suggest they head back. But then it was pouring, and they still sat and looked at each other. They were smiling, thinking this is what Will would have done.

They had been in the Valley for another week when Maureen and John decided it was about time to leave. It had been nice here, but Judy and Penny didn’t seem to be getting any better. Judy spent most of her time alone, walking around the Valley, and Penny spent most of her time in her room, just like before. They decided maybe this had been a bad idea. Will seemed so close here. The two of them would never get over his death, but they had each other and it was the best thing for them. But the girls didn’t seem to find any comfort in anything, and talked very little to their parents, no matter how much John and Maureen tried to communicate with them. 

They told Judy the next evening when she was in the galley. “That’s fine,” She answered. She didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

When they saw she wasn’t going to say anything else, they stood up to go see Penny. Judy stood and walked outside. After knocking several times, Penny called, “What?”

“We’re going to leave in three days, Penny,” Maureen called.

“Penny?”

“I heard you.”

Maureen and John looked at each other and sighed, then walked away.

Penny rolled over and covered her head. She hadn’t been out of her room other than to go to the bathroom or grab food in four days. Don had come by the day before and tried to talk to her, but she had ignored him as well. She tried to fall back to sleep, but she couldn’t.

Finally she sat up. Next to her bed stand was a photo in a frame. It was the picture of the siblings together at Judy’s track meet. Will had kept it in his room, but Judy must have brought it back and left it here when she checked in on Penny.

She reached for the photo. She pulled her knees up and held the picture against them and stared at it. What a great day that had been. Will looked so happy. He loved it when his sisters had success in whatever it was they were doing. Of course Judy was usually the one who excelled, and Will was always there to support her. But he was the same with Penny. She remembered when she wrote in her journal, the story of the family getting lost in space. Without telling her, he had published the story and given it to everyone as a Christmas gift on the Water Planet. He was so proud of his sister’s work.

She placed the photo back on her bed stand, then pulled open the top drawer and took the journal out. She ran her fingers over the cover. She smiled. She turned to the first page and read. She started silently, “Our Jupiter was hurtling through the atmosphere at twenty five times the speed of sound.”

She began reading aloud. “This is the story of discovery. But not of strange new worlds. It’s about discovering what’s in the spaces you thought were empty. Sometimes, it’s the invisible force of my family…pulling at me. Even when I can’t see them. Reminding me…that I’m never really alone.”

Then she was crying. When she had written those words, she had no idea what the next two years would bring, but she knew now that they were truer than ever. And she knew the invisible force of Will was pulling at her now…reminding her that she wasn’t alone.

“Thank you Will,” She said.

She knew what she had to do. When Will had come back to the Amber Planet after his first trip back to Earth, and found Penny was not leaving her room, he asked her if she was writing. He knew her so well. That she covered her demons with sarcasm. And he knew that writing was her lifeline. It kept her sane.

He didn’t judge her, he didn’t push her, he just asked her if she was writing. In his soft, kind, Will manner. Suggesting what she could do to pull herself out of this.

It was the thing she loved. The thing she knew. She had to write. And she knew what she had to write. Will’s story.

She slowly thumbed through the journal, running her hands over the pages, thinking. Where does it start? On the Water Planet? Where her journal had left off? On the Resolute, when the robots took Will? That was when it all changed for him. It seemed to be the likely place. But maybe it was before that. There was so much more to her brother than what had happened to him in space. Maybe it was back in the park, the two of them sitting and drinking a root beer float. But that wouldn’t work, because Judy was as much a part of the story as she and Will were. It was Will’s story, but it was really the story of the three of them.

She looked back at the photo on her bed stand and she had the answer. The track meet. Judy was at State, trying to win the 400. She and Will were both there supporting her when their parents couldn’t be. It was the best day. It was the place to start Will’s story. The story of the three of them.

Finally, for the first time in months, she had a direction. She turned to the back of the Journal where she had left off. To the last page where her mother had written “Fill These.”

“I will,” She said. She flipped the page to find the first blank one, but the next page had been written in as well. Strange, she thought. She hadn’t added anything else.

She read the inscription. It was a tiny, cursive scrawl. Handwriting she didn’t recognize. “Who writes cursive these days?” She asked herself. She read the words:

“It’s a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. It’s a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

“I don’t understand what…” She read the words again. Then she recognized the handwriting. "But..." She dropped the journal and jumped out of bed.


	49. Chapter 49

Penny ran down the hall to the Flight Deck where she found her mom and dad looking out the window at Judy who was sitting alone in a wooden chair, staring up at the mountains.

“Mom, Dad.”

They turned and saw her standing there. Maureen smiled, happy to see her daughter was out of bed.

“What if Will isn’t dead?” Penny asked.

John and Maureen looked at each other, then back at their daughter. “Penny,” Maureen said. “I know how you feel. You’ve been through a lot. We all have. And we’re all hurting…but you can’t…

“Mom, I’m serious,” Penny said.

“Honey,” John said. “You can’t do this to yourself.”

“There’s an inscription in my journal. It’s a quote. It says, ‘It’s a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done. It’s a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.”

“’You think Will left you that as a message?” Maureen asked.

“It’s not from Will,” She said.

The sand was warm on his face. His head had been in Judy’s lap, her hand stroking his hair softly. Her voice soothing him. But that was a dream. She wasn’t here. He was alone. He was always alone. And he wasn’t on a beach. His face was lying on hard concrete, not on warm sand. The last thing he had seen, before closing his eyes, was an ant crawling across the gray rock bed that his cage rested on, dragging the remnants of an insect in its sharp mandibles.

 _His_ cage. So small he couldn’t stand. So narrow he couldn’t stretch out his legs. And so he was curled up in a fetal position, his face pressed into the concrete of the cage floor. He had no idea how long it had been since he had heard a human voice. He talked to himself often at first, just to listen to his own words. But he had given that up weeks ago. Now he just woke and looked for food or water, and if there was anything, he would relish it. Try to make it last as long as possible. Then curl up again and try to sleep.

Sleep was his only respite. He hoped to feel Judy’s hand on his head again. Maybe if he could just fall back to sleep he would feel it. Her warm fingers running through his hair. Her soft words comforting him, telling him everything would be fine. She was there. She would take care of him now. But then he thought maybe he had dreamed her too. Maybe this cage was all there ever was. His cage. His world. All his world had ever been. All his world would ever be.

He decided to open his eyes. That’s what he had to do now, to accomplish the smallest tasks. Like opening his eyes. He had to decide. To think about it. He would open his eyes and look through the bars. Maybe the ant was still there. He would watch it until it disappeared into the grass. It would occupy him. And when he could no longer see it, he would imagine it. Crawling across the canyon and up into the mountains. The ant could go anywhere it wanted. But he would still be in his cage. He would still be alone.

He opened his eyes slowly. He wasn’t alone. There was a girl in the room. Will was curled up on his left side, but his face was not on hard concrete, it was pressed into a soft cushion. Just another dream. He had had so many. Walking through a deep forest, stumbling, falling, lying and looking up at a thick, green canopy. Riding in a car with his family, Penny’s warm body next to his. Walking across a wide field of blue green grass, climbing to the top of a small rise where he looked down on a beach where his family waited. Then stumbling onto the sand, falling and waiting, watching Judy slowly walk toward him until she was sitting next to him, lifting his head into her lap, comforting him, then telling him he couldn’t stay with his family. He had to go back. Go back to his cage.

That was all a dream. Everything was a dream. The girl was a dream. He closed his eyes again. He remembered one evening, after he had been in the cage for weeks. He was lying on the hard concrete as a storm brewed and he looked up at the mountains surrounding the canyon. He could see a cloud filled, darkening sky and recalled the broken lines of a poem he had dreamed long ago, the words escaping him save for the final stanza:

“From the thunder of the storm  
And the cloud that took the form,  
when the rest of heaven was blue,  
of a demon in my view.”

The lightening flash’s the demons eyes, reaching into his soul, touching him at his core, and taking everything from him: his childhood, his innocence and everyone who loved him, leaving him alone with his cage. He had looked up at the gathering storm, knowing within a matter of minutes he would have his arms wrapped around his legs, shivering as he sought warmth from the cold mountain rain. And he had known the lightening was the brilliant flashing eyes of the demon who watched him. It wasn’t the robots who had taken him from his family. Put him in the cage. It was the demon. Only the demon could release him. But the demon held no mercy.

Will was in pain, and the pain forced his mind to clear. He slowly opened his eyes again, searching for the ant. But the girl was there. He was looking through slits. But he could see the girl, asleep on a cushion near the foot of his low bed. He imagined he could smell flowers, though it seemed hard to inhale. His hands were curled up to his chest, clenched in fists. Like he was a tiny infant. He moved his right hand slowly and felt his face. His nose was swollen. He ran his fingers over his eyes and his cheeks. Everything was swollen and there were bandages. He felt a breeze blowing across him from behind, and he thought he heard the voices of children. He tried to turn to look but couldn’t move.

The girl’s body rose and fell with each shallow breath. Her clothing was loose fitting and sheer, and had Will felt better he would have been embarrassed, seeing her practically naked. He tried to talk. To call out to her. But his words came out as a low, raspy whisper.

Still, she opened her eyes. She smiled at him. A radiant smile. She stood and approached the bed he was lying on and sat beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’re alive, Will.”

The voice was cheerful, familiar.

“Siena?” He whispered, the word coming out easier this time.

“Yes.” For the first time, Will noticed she was beautiful. “I think someone wants to say hello, Will. Let me help turn you to your back.”

She placed a hand under his arm and one on his chest and gently rolled him until he was flat. He was staring up at the top of a colorful tent, dyed in green and purple. To his right, something moved into his vision. Something big. Something blue.

Robot lowered to one knee and put a hand on Will’s chest. “Will Robinson. Friend.”

“Robot!” It was a hoarse whisper. Will moved his hand slowly until it was covering his friend’s large, mechanical one. It hurt so badly to move even that.

“What…”

“Will, don’t talk, alright?” Siena said. “I’m going to leave you here with your friend for a few minutes and get Roana and some of the others. They will want to see you. What you have done has surprised them. They are never surprised. So they are anxious to see you.”

“But…”

She placed a finger on his lips. Her touch was warm. Her eyes were bright, smiling. “Shhh,” she whispered. “Roana will answer your questions. I’ll be right back.” She leaned close and kissed his lips very gently. Then she rose and left through a light curtain.

Will looked up at Robot. Past his friend’s head there was an open flap, creating a large window where the breeze was coming in. He could see a glimpse of blue sky and what looked to be palm trees. He heard children playing somewhere past the window. He watched Robot’s white lights swirl around in his face shield. He had thought Robot was dead. Was certain of it. Will had no idea what had happened, but for now he was content to feel Robot’s hand on his chest. In the touch, he felt comfort for the first time in weeks. Maybe since he and Silvia had made love in the top of the warehouse while the military was running up and down the road and helicopters hovered above, searching for them. After, she had curled up next to him with her head on his chest. It was nice.

He was in such pain, but suddenly realized it was only from his waist up. He slowly felt his chest and stomach. His skin was raw. He slipped his hand under the light blanket that covered him. He had no clothes on. He felt himself to make sure he was all there. He was, but everything was numb. He reached lower and touched both his legs. There was no feeling in them. He tried to move his feet, but couldn’t. He thought about what had happened. He remembered the sharp pain and the the white flash. Just like in his dream. And that should have been the end of everything. But here he was. And he knew this was real. Robot’s hand on his chest was real. Siena’s soft lips were real. He remembered her kissing Penny and teasing his sister. But maybe she kissed everyone. Will realized he couldn’t focus, and his mind was wandering. He looked back at Robot and tried not to think.

Ten minutes later Roana entered the tent with three other women and Siena. They were all dressed the same as the girl and none of them seemed shy. I’m definitely not dead, Will thought, looking at them as they surrounded the low cushioned bed he was lying on.

“He lives,” Roana said, smiling.

“What…”

“Will, just rest. Try not to talk. What you have been through...you should not be alive. But there are forces in the universe that even we do not understand, I suppose.”

“But I have to know…what happened,” he whispered, the words hard to get out through his swollen throat.

“Will, this is not the time. You have been hurt. Your mind is not clear, and anything we have to tell you will offer little comfort, other than the fact that you have survived something you should not have survived. We do not truly know who you are…or what you are.”

“I am…a weapon. Everyone…wants me for that. For…the robots.”

Roana stared at him for a few seconds, then she took a seat on the cushion by him. Siena sat down near his feet and the other women sat in cushions near the bed. “Will,” Roana said. “We do not believe it was about the robots. We do not truly understand it. We can see paths of your kind, but we cannot see everything. We do not know what the other’s wanted with you. But there was power in it. Unimagined power.”

“Others?” Will asked.

“Yes, Will. We know about the other world. It has always been. There are many worlds. We can glimpse some things, but this is our world. This is the world we can see.”

“What…power?”

“It is the room. That is where the power comes from. The room you call The White Room. We do not know how.”

“What kind of…power?”

“We believe you can get a glimpse of the future. Maybe more than a glimpse. Remember in your space vision, when you connected to the robots, and you saw the beginning of the universe. You saw organic life being distributed throughout it."

“I saw…it…burn.”

“Yes. You could not understand what it was. We believe the others saw this through you, and glimpsed the future as well. They thought they could use your power. Those on the other side. Or…whoever planned this. We believe they thought they could control you. Because you were a child, given a power you could not understand. You were Innocent. Good. You could be corrupted. Bent to their wishes. But like so many…they underestimated you. You glimpsed the power and turned away. A much unexpected reaction for a human.”

“My other…self? His mother?”

“We think it is beyond them. We observed you in the room with them. We saw that path. When you spoke to them. We believe they were truthful. But we think they were unaware as well. Of what was planned for you."

Will didn’t say anything, and Roana placed a hand on his arm. “As I said Will, we cannot see everything. But we saw this: You would not be corrupted. You would destroy this room that they built, and stop them from succeeding. You would sacrifice yourself to do this. You just had to stay on your path. That had to happen.”

Will was staring at the top of the tent. He closed his eyes. The room went through several silent minutes. Then he opened his eyes and whispered, “Who are you?” He was still not looking at her. “How do you know…things…about me? About this?”

“We are human Will. Just as human as you are. Though we see the world differently than you do. So…we help you. You seem to have a desire to destroy yourselves. And we have done everything we can to help you avoid this. Sometimes we have been successful, sometimes not so successful.

“You…were a success. Though it was very close at times. And…it didn’t end the way we had foreseen.”

“What…do you mean?” He whispered.

“You are alive. There is no path that we envisioned in which you survived. You should be dead now. You are supposed to be dead. That is why we could never see a path past the room. We see you enter, but we never see you exit. We see nothing. You are something we have never experienced. And we are confused by you. But it is also exciting. To not know.”

“I don’t…,” Will looked confused. He turned his head to look at her again. “You see the future? Is that what…what you are saying?”

“Not in the way you think. We see many futures.”

“I don’t…” he didn’t finish. He had no idea what she meant.

Roana looked around at the other women. One of them was older than the others. She nodded slightly.

Roana turned back to the boy. She moved closer on his bed, leaned forward and placed a hand on his forehead. “Shut your eyes, Will.” He looked at her for a second, then did as he was told.

Suddenly he was older, twenty eight or nine, hurrying down a hallway. He was walking by young kids who smiled and greeted him. He entered a room where fifteen or twenty teenagers were sitting, talking, laughing.

“OK, class take your seats,” He said.

“Mr. Robinson are we having a test today?” a teenage girl asked.

“Not today, Jennifer,” he said as he walked to the front of the room. On a board behind his desk were the words: Mr. Robinson: Ancient Alien Civilizations.

Then he was in the Valley. The same age, twenty eight or twenty nine. He was sitting on the porch of one of the small round houses. There were two children playing in the front yard, a boy who was maybe four years old and a girl who was a year or two older. They were light skinned, but had jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. They were playing with a little boy who was seven or eight. The boy’s skin was much darker. “Will, You sure you have them?”

He looked in the trees where Judy was walking toward them, smiling. An older Judy. He realized the dark skinned boy was her’s.

“I’m on my way to mom and dad’s to help with the cooking,” She added.

“I’ve got them Jude,” He called. "It's not like anything is going to happen to them here, anyway." He smiled and watched as his beautiful older sister waved and walked off through the trees.

He felt warm arms around him, and Nin was kissing his ear. She pulled back and he saw she was as beautiful as ever, though now a young woman.

“Get a room you two!”

He looked out where Penny was walking down one of the marble paths through the trees toward them. There was a young man with her. Will didn’t recognize him, but the two of them looked very happy as they held hands. He smiled at his sister and she smiled back.

Then someone was pushing him. “No,” he said, drowsily. “It’s Saturday.”

“It’s Sunday and it’s your turn. Tommy 's crying.”

The girl had a slight accent. She was pushing on his back, moving him closer to the edge of the bed.

He heard the baby crying now. He slowly turned his head and looked at the beautiful girl lying beside him, smiling.

Will smiled back at her. “Fine, fine, fine.” He stumbled out of bed. Bright sunlight was coming through the window.

“We can’t stay in bed all day, Silvia,” he said as he walked to the door. “We have to go to Judy’s. Penny will be there before noon.”

“I bet I can make us late,” she said with a mischievous grin.

“I bet you can,” he grinned back.

He was almost to the door when Silvia said, “Hey.”

He turned around.

“When you come back, bring coffee…Will Fuckin Robinson.”

He laughed. “Yes ma’am,” he said, and turned and walked out, on his way to pick up their son.

Then the images quickened, flashing by. He saw Rose, walking ahead of him on a trail somewhere, massive trees, taller than he had ever seen, towered over them. She was looking back laughing, saying, “Keep up Will, your sisters are waiting.”

He saw Brent; older, tossing a small girl in the air, then catching her. The child had red hair and was giggling. When Brent caught her she said, “Do it again Uncle Brent.” Will saw Penny and Judy sitting behind them, a blanket spread out on a sandy beach, a wide blue ocean behind them. Will was looking at the beach in his dreams from his time in the cage.

Then he was sitting on the steps of a wide porch, a little boy beside him. He saw Don, working on a small car in the front yard. “OK to go,” Don said. The little boy stood up and ran to the car. Don picked him up and put him in the driver’s seat.

“Be careful Zach,” Will called to the little boy as he drove off across the lawn.

Don walked up and sat down next to Will. “Yeah, cause your old man always was,” He said, elbowing Will in the ribs and grinning.

“I was careful,” Will argued.

“Which time? When you took off with the robots? Or when you jumped in a contaminated river?”

“It wasn’t contaminated,” Will said.

“Well, since you didn’t know that at the time, I think I made my point,”

Will grinned at him. “I guess I could have been a little more careful.”

“You boy’s want a beer?” They turned and looked at Judy, standing at the door smiling at them. Will realized that she and Don were together.

Suddenly he was in a smoky room. He was on stage, alone, singing a song and strumming his guitar. The room was small, but it was full of people. He was looking up when they came in the door and took a table in the back. Both of them smiled at him. He smiled back. He hadn’t seen them in almost a year. He finished the song and the room applauded.

“Thanks everyone,” He said. “I’m back same time tomorrow night. Hope to see you all here.”

He stopped by the bar and said something to the bartender. She smiled. He walked back to the table where his two sisters sat. They stood and hugged him, and he sat down.

“What happened?” Penny asked. “Last time we were here there were like, four people.”

“I’m getting kind of popular out here. I have a regular circuit now. I’m here a couple times a month. They call it an old Earth folk revival thing. Really just old rock.”

“But slower,” Penny said.

“You know me, Penny.” He gave her a weak smile. “It’s the lyrics, not the music.”

“We miss you, Will,” Judy said.

“I miss you guys too,” He answered, his voice sad. They didn’t see him often, but when they did, he was always sad.

“We went back to the Amber Planet in July,” Judy said. “To the Valley. Nin looked good. She said to give you her love.”

Will was quiet for a few seconds, then asked, “Is she happy?”

“Yes. She has a new baby. A boy. She named him William.”

Will smiled, but they saw the pain in his eyes. “Good. I’m happy for her.”

“But what about you, Will? Are you happy?” Penny asked.

“I’m fine,” He answered. He wasn’t and they knew it.

“Why don’t you come back, Will?” Judy asked, reaching out and taking his hands. “You need your family.”

“And we need you,” Penny added, placing her hand on his forearm.

He just sighed. “There’s this little park near my apartment,” He said. “I go there and just sit sometimes, Sunday mornings. It reminds me of the park back home.” He smiled at Penny. “There’s a bench there like the one we used to sit on, eating ice cream cones and drinking root beer floats.”

She smiled. She missed him so much.

“I was there last weekend,” he went on. “And there were three little kids playing. I watched them for a while. Then I heard what they were saying. One of them said he was Will Robinson. The other two were arguing over who got to be Robot. One of them agreed to be Ravi ja, though he called him Rovi ja. Then the one who was playing Will Robinson said to the one playing Ravi ja, ‘you have to hang me on a cross, and when Robot saves me, I come back to life."

Judy and Penny glanced at each other. They knew what this was doing to their little brother.

“I wanted to walk over and tell them, ‘We were real people. Ravi ja was a real person, and he died before he was able to be what he was supposed to be. He may have been a great man someday, but he never had the chance. He got caught up in my orbit, and like so many others, it didn’t end well. And I wanted to tell them, Will Robinson was never put on a cross. And he never died, so he sure never came back to life. And when he dies, he won’t.”

“Hey, this stray belong to you?” The bartender was carrying three brown bottles of beer and sat them down on the table. She ruffled Will’s hair. “Because if he ever comes up missing he followed me home and I kept him.”

They smiled at her. “Celin, these are my sisters,” Will said.

“Ohhh,” Now she whispered in a conspiratorial voice. “Judy and Penny. I finally get to meet you. I thought you were a myth.”

They smiled at her and said hello.

“Let me know if you need anything. Especially you.” She winked at Will as she walked off.

“She’s cute,” Penny said. “And she knows who you really are, I guess. Does this mean it’s serious?”

“She’s nice,” Will said, but didn’t offer any more. Penny thought, there was a time I knew everything about my brother. She ached for that time.

Will took a drink from the bottle. “You know they write songs about me? I saw a comic book on Ralin when I was there for a music festival last year. Earth Boy and Robot. All of them talk about the people I saved. None of them talk about how I killed five thousand people in a nanosecond. Or the others who died because of me.”

“They don’t do those things for bad people, Will,” Judy said. “You’re a good person. The number of people you saved cannot be known. Millions. Billions. So they tell the stories they have heard. And yes, they exaggerate. They make things up. But what you did, Will. The lives you saved are what they are celebrating.”

Will took another drink from the bottle. “I didn’t say anything to those kids in the park. I stood up and walked home. I realized it was too late. I couldn’t stop it. It’s all the way out here. In this galaxy. If I can’t hide from my own myth way out here, how can I ever go home where it’s everywhere I turn?”

“Will,” Judy said, squeezing his arm and looking into her brother’s eyes. “Dad’s sick.”

Then he was piloting a small spaceship as it sliced through a deep cloud bank. The Ancient City was ahead. He cut the lights as soon as he was over the rocky field, hit the reverse thrusters and landed quietly. He looked at Judy sitting beside him. She reached under her seat and took out two laser pistols. She turned and smiled. “Ready baby brother.”

“Judy…”

“No one dies, I know.” She reached up and popped the hatch and climbed out. Will climbed out the other side, and Robot pulled himself up from the seat behind him and leaped to the ground beside the siblings.

Will was strapping two swords to his back.

“Will. Swords? Really?” Judy said.

“How often do I get to practice?” He was grinning.

He loves this, Judy thought. This was her brother now. Wild, reckless and free. It had all changed him. She loved his strength, but she missed the little boy who she used to comfort. The only thing that comforted him now was a night like this. And yet: "No one dies." It was almost his motto. His heart had not changed. She smiled, seeing eleven year old Will's warmth and kindness in his older eyes. 

“Olin Dar,” Robot said.

“Don’t worry, old friend,” Will replied. He pulled two hand lasers out of his belt to show him.

“Olin Dar?” Judy asked.

“Olin Dar was the head of Inanna’s guards. He arrested mom and Doctor Smith and Nin when they went to the Valley looking for me. Olin had been with the Fortuna, but he learned to use swords on the Amber Planet.

“So when Nin attacked him, he reached for the sword instead of the lasers. And he died. When Nin taught me to use swords she told me to always remember the moral of Olin Dar. When you have two lasers, don’t reach for a sword.”

The siblings grinned at each other.

“OK, Robot. You wait here until you see us, alright?” He said.

“Danger Will Robinson.”

“Always, old friend.” He patted him on the back and he and Judy started off across the field toward the city.

“You think she’s OK?” Judy asked as they walked.

“It’s not Penny I’m worried about,” Will replied. “It’s those idiots who grabbed her. I want to get her before she kills everyone.”

Roana removed her hand and Will opened his eyes wide. “What…?”

“That is the future we see Will Robinson. And many, many others. Because every decision you make leads to a different path, what we see are possibilities. Possible paths. Things that will happen if a certain path is followed. If another path is chosen, the future changes.”

“And that’s…what…I just saw?”

“Yes. We see what will happen or may happen. They are all possible paths.”

“How do you see…these things? If you are…human?”

“Our world is complex, Will. And yet it adheres to certain fundamental truths. The problem is that humans like you can no longer see many of them. Our ability to connect to the universe is what your scientists are trying to do. By observing the smallest particles. They do not understand it. Because it is not the reality they see. But we understand how the world is connected. Humans used to be connected in this way with their universe, until they educated themselves away from it. Always in search of a greater purpose.”

“Then…who…are you?”

“You have called us many things over the centuries. At one time we were revered, and in some societies still today we are. As shaman, healers, soothsayers. Tribal societies knew much more of the world than you do. They knew that the world was connected in ways that could not be observed with the naked eye. But eventually, on just about every planet in the universe, mankind evolves until it educates itself into oblivion.

“Religion is always the beginning of the end. Once a civilization decides it has discovered the One True God, it is never long before our kind is being burned at the stake.”

“Witches?” Will asked.

The women all laughed, except Siena who was just looking at Will, sadly.

“The best way to know who we are," Roana continued, "is that we have the same connection to our world and the world around us…how it behaves and how we react to it…that tribal societies on Earth had centuries ago. That tribes on this planet have now. We never lost it. The world moved past us, and has done everything it could to come back to us since. To find what we know. To find what they used to know.

“Why do we see the world this way? I would like to say we have superpowers bestowed upon us by a Supreme Being, making us the chosen tribe of all humanity. But it is much simpler than that. We have an enlarged pineal gland in our brains. A hereditary trait, like blue eyes. The pineal gland produces melatonin, but it also produces DMT. DMT occurs naturally in some plants and animals, and normally in amounts so small in humans that scientists have never really known if it exists naturally in humans or not. But I assure you it does, and in abnormally large amounts in my kind. It was the substance in the hallucinogen that you took that caused you to have visions. The visions you had, and many have when consuming plants or substances with DMT, we have naturally. It helps us to see the world as it is, not as mankind wants it to be.

“Those of us on this planet have refined our abilities through thousands of years of evolution and training. Most of our kind throughout the universe feel things deeply, see certain truths in the world, can sometimes get premonitions of the future, but cannot do the things we do. Because of our ability, be it a gift or a curse, we feel we have a responsibility to use it. ”

“What…do you do?”

“We try to help you survive,” she answered.

“How?” Will asked.

She thought for a moment, then said, “Your grandmother, your mother’s mother, was born on a small farm in Indiana. A chance encounter at a supermarket made her decide to follow a young man to California where she later met your grandfather and your mother was born. Your mother met your father and Will Robinson was born. But we saw different paths. Your grandmother was caught at a traffic light and never met the young man in the supermarket. She stayed in Indiana and gave birth to twin girls and raised them on the farm. Will Robinson never existed.

“These are the paths that we see. In our dreams. What you would call trances. And sometimes, we steer you, remove the roadblocks so to speak. To make sure you take the path that helps humanity survive. We interfered in your grandmother’s decision because the birth of Will Robinson was much more important than the birth of the twin girls.”

“How can you say that? Just…playing god.” They heard the anguish in his voice.

“Playing God. Perhaps. It is not a gift we asked for. We see your paths, and…how they end. Deaths over and over again.

“We saw your’s, Will. Many different deaths. Some we could help you avoid, others we could only watch and hope that fate had chosen a different path for you. We saw you crushed in the street by an automobile as a small child. Mauled by a dog, spending weeks in a hospital before dying. We saw you leap in the cold water to enter your spaceship and get entangled in wires and when your suit failed, your family gathered around you, unable to fit in the hatch, watching helplessly, your face inches from their’s as they clutched you and the life faded from your eyes. We saw this destroy your father, his decision to send you into the water would be the cross he would bear to an early grave.

“We saw you buried in the rubble of a falling building on Earth, with the children from the city who you tried to help.

“We saw you drift away in space.

“We saw you die in a fire in a forest on an unknown planet, calling your father on your radio until your throat was scorched from the heat and you could speak no longer. We saw him finding what was left of you.

“And we saw you die in the cage, Will. Not of thirst or hunger, but of utter loneliness. A small boy who had tried to save his family and friends, dying a most horrible death for his sacrifice.

“If you think this is a gift, we would happily part with it…exchange it for a short life of blissful ignorance as the rest of humanity.

“Your childhood has been the dawn of a most stormy life, Will.”

He recognized some of the lines from the poem he had remembered as he woke and knew she was showing him what they could see. But he didn’t answer. He just stared up at the top of the tent again, engulfed in the horror of what she had told him.

“There have been many challenges to your world’s survival, Will. But none so dangerous as what those on the other side have been. Your mirror world, as you would have it. But we saw a way to stop them, through you. And so we prepared your path. Through myths and superstition, doing everything we could to remove the obstacles.

“On this planet we created the myth of Mol Dalmu. The Child God. The Bringer of Storms. Yes, the names were rather melodramatic, but we were dealing with primitive societies here. And when you arrived, many wanted to kill you, but many fought for you as well. Because they had waited for you for generations. They helped you on your path."

“Why did you do this? I…I don’t understand.”

“Centuries ago, one of us dreamed the path of Will Robinson. A boy who found a way to reach across to the other world. Or…was created for this purpose. And, like all paths, your’s could have taken many directions.

“But those in the alternate world were the true danger. To themselves and to you. To the entire universe. But we saw on one of your paths, that you would destroy this room that they built and all it contained. We had to make sure this was the path that you followed.

“When your people came from the Fortuna, one of us guided a robot to the woman, Inanna. It showed her the tunnel passageway. She built her house above it. And she sent the robots for you.”

“That path led to the cage,” Will said. “ _My_ cage.”

“Yes. A regrettable and necessary path.”

“Necessary? It…it changed me…forever,” Will said. “Took…my childhood.”

“I know Will,” Roana said softly. “We do not have the luxury of choosing the easy path. We choose the necessary path. The cage is what made you who you had to become to do what you had to do.”

“But this was my life. I was…your chess piece. And so many…died.”

“Yes Will. But we saw the alternative. We could not let that happen. We had to stop it.”

 _“Stop what?_ ” He practically shouted this, but his voice cracked.

“What we saw Will, is that Evil does truly exist in the universe. And it is personified in whoever possessed the power of the room that they built. Somehow your ability to connect to the robots gave you the power of that room. They had no access to it without you. They needed you to enter the room and make the connection to the robots, while there. And you did not do that.

“But you would not be their last attempt, only their first. Others would come and eventually discover the room and be able to do what you could do. In some paths, we saw a descendant of the soldiers that you brought to the planet, three centuries from now, doing what you could do. We saw a human with your abilities from another galaxy, seven centuries from now, discovering the room. We have seen it over and over again. And the power consumes them. Whatever it is they see, whatever power it gives them.

“Imagine if Satan killed God and ruled heaven. This is what we saw. You saw the universe burning. We saw this and other things…but always destruction. This is what we had to stop. It was imperative that this room be destroyed, along with everything that it contained. Regardless of the cost. The cost in lives. The cost to you.”

Tears were running down Will’s cheeks. Siena moved up to wipe them away. “No!” he said. He tried to grab her hand, but he was too weak.

She gently took his hand, placed it back on the bed, then carefully wiped the tears from his cheeks. This time he didn’t try to stop her. He saw it was just kindness. She had no more choice in this than he did.

“On Earth too,” Will said. “When I was back...they had heard of me. This was you?”

“Yes. The two boys who saved everyone…who saved you…they had heard of you because we planted the legend of Will Robinson and what you had done with your robot soon after it had happened. Of course those boys did not believe it. They were practical. Intelligent. But then your robot landed. And they found out you were not Randy Carter, and that Will Robinson was not a myth. Had they not heard of you, they would not have entrusted the children they had protected to you. They would have run into the building and they would have died there. As would you. We saw this path and had to stop it. So instead, they ran down the street and attacked the soldiers. They told you to save the children. They trusted you because they had heard the myth and then found it was not a myth. They saved you and you saved the children.”

“But how did I survive this?” Will asked. “I planned to…die. You thought I would die.” It was becoming easier for him to talk, though it was still not much more than a whisper.

“It was the Guardian, Will.” Roana said.


	50. Chapter 50

John and Maureen looked at Penny, confused. “If it’s not from Will, why are you saying he could be alive?” John asked.

“It’s from a Tale Of Two Cities,” Penny said. “The character is Sydney Carton. He’s…kind of a mess. Complicated. Like, almost a criminal most of the book, but he’s madly in love with a woman. Lucie Manette. And so is another man. Charles Darnay. But Lucie loved Charles. And he’s going to be executed. So Sydney Carton switches places with him and dies in the guillotine. He sacrificed himself. In the end, he’s the real hero.

“I think…I think that’s what the message means.”

“The Guardian? The Kur woman?” Will asked Roana.

“No Will. She was an old woman who guarded a wooden door. The Kur always protected the pathway to the other world with the Guardian. And as many myths are, this was a bastardization of what they had learned from us. And those in your mirror world took their story of the Guardian and used it for their own devices. They would replace the Kur’s Guardian with you. The one who could reach across to their world would become the Guardian of both worlds. This was the apple they dangled in front of you. Do what they want you to do, and you would protect the ones you loved, you would protect your world, and you would protect their’s. You would live here with your family. After enduring so much, they assumed you would relish this opportunity…for peace. For happiness.

“For such intelligent people, they knew so little of you."

“But…you said you had a story of the Guardian?”

“Yes Will. There was always a Guardian. There was always a Pathway. You were the Pathway. The pathway to the other side. And we gave you a guardian. You had to survive. You had to get to the room to fulfill your destiny.”

“You gave me…a guardian? Robot?” Will looked up at him. “He saved me in the tree, and so many times…”

“No. That was not our doing. You have had a Guardian your whole life. Before you went to space. You were that important.”

“Judy? She has always protected me…until…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish.

“Judy would have kept you from your path to protect you. You were correct in not telling her your plans. No, The Guardian was one of us, Will. Perhaps the most important of our kind because she was guarding you. Though for most of her life, she had no knowledge of her purpose. She was important because you were important. She had to make sure you stayed on the path.”

“But I don’t know anyone like that,” Will said.

“Of course you do. She was there throughout your life. When you were four years old, you fell from your bicycle, and she carried you home. You thought it was a kindly woman just helping you. But what you did not know was that had you stayed in the street for a few more seconds, you would have been killed by an automobile coming around the corner.”

Will remembered the woman in the park, carrying him home. He had seen her in his vision when he had consumed the hallucinogenic, and thought she was familiar, though he couldn’t remember what she looked like.

“When you were six years old, she saved you from a dog that attacked you at your Grandmother’s farm.”

Will had vague memories of this event. He had tried to forget it and had blocked most of it from his mind.

“Five years later, she was aboard your spaceship, though she was not supposed to be. She had to be there to make sure she fired the harpoon to your father in space. When she did that, he was able to save you when you drifted away from the ship. And she made the hole in your hydroponic garden to get your father to leave the planet you were stranded on. To move you along your path."

“Doctor Smith?” He asked.

“She helped your family escape to this planet to find you. She killed the woman Inanna, who put you in that cage. Then she stayed, because she knew you would be back. And she helped you in the battle on the field. She saved your life. She protected you. Over and over again.”

Will’s head was racing. He was seeing all of these things in his mind. Dr. Smith was always there. Always doing the hard things. Always surprising them. He saw her standing over him on the battle field, laser in hand, firing over and over again into the charging Haja army.

“But how?”

“She didn’t know herself Will. What she was. What her function was. Having her in the right place to protect you is something we can do, in the way particles can react to each other light years apart. For us, it is not an exact science by any means. We fail as often as we succeed. With you…we had to be successful. And we were.”

“But she didn’t know?” Will asked.

“She didn’t know at first. Our kind seldom know who they are. They do not see the possible paths like we do. They have…premonitions. Except those of us on this planet. The most important planet. But then your Doctor Smith did something only you could do. And she was able to see what she was.”

“When she connected with Robot,” Will said. It was becoming easier for him to speak and his head was clearing.

“Yes. When she connected with your robot. We do not know how she did that, any more than we truly know how you did it. But when she did, she saw her purpose. We no longer had influence over her. Everything she did after that she did without our…help. She saw what you were."

“What my counterpart told me,” Will said. “What…he found in his mother’s file, was that there was another possible me on the Resolute, and then on the planet. Now. Another one who might be able to do what I could do. And if I failed, they would try to use the other person. There was no information…in the file, no details. I thought it might be Doctor Smith. She had disappeared, and she had been the only other person…to connect to a robot. When we both knew they had another opportunity, we decided we had to go through with our plan. To stop them. I thought, if it _was_ Doctor Smith, she would do what they wanted. What I wouldn’t do. For the power. She always wanted power."

“And you decided you could destroy the soldiers at the same time,” Roana added.

“Yes. To stop them from what they were going to do on this planet. That’s…what I told myself. But…it was for what they had done on Earth too. It was…revenge.” He shut his eyes tightly. “I…chose that. I planned to die with them. Now…I have to carry it.”

“You did nothing Will. You have nothing to carry. That is how you survived.”

He opened his eyes and looked at her.

“Your Guardian surprised us. Like she has you so often. She was to make sure you survived long enough to enter the room. That was the purpose we had for her when we were able to influence her. But once she connected with your robot, she formed her own plan, it appears.

“You were to die. You were to reach across, make contact with your other from your mirror world, and the two of you would create the annihilation. You would sacrifice yourselves, and stop them from what they had planned to do. This was always what we saw.

“But your Guardian, Doctor Smith, connected with your robot like she had before.”

“I felt that. I thought he had died,” Will said.

“When Doctor Smith reconnected with him, he brought the spaceship down that he was on. Your friends survived. They landed and your robot left and met your Guardian. And she took him to the mountains. To the room that the others had built.

“The Room is massive, though it is opaque after a few meters. Doctor Smith was in the room when you entered, though you could not see her. She was Waiting. What happened after that we did not see. Your friend arrived with you here, two weeks later. You were badly injured. We can mend the superficial cuts, but there are things we cannot help you with. You have no feeling in your lower body. We do not know if this is permanent. We cannot see your paths. You were supposed to die, Will. And you did not."

Will was speechless. Absorbing what she was telling him. “So Doctor Smith…?”

“Yes Will. She sacrificed herself for you. We felt this. The annihilation was between her and her duplicate, instead of you and yours.”

Will was thinking of everything Doctor Smith had done since she had connected with Robot the first time. How she had planned it all. After all of that, he still thought she would do what the alternate universe had wanted. He always gave people the benefit of the doubt. Always felt there was a side that people did not see, and yet, with Dr. Smith, he always assumed the worst. He was overcome with emotion. And with guilt. Siena moved up again and took his hand and they all waited while he tried to control himself.

“My counterpart…my mirror self…I've been unconscious and he didn't make contact."

“We do not know if he survived Will. We cannot see those on the other side. Your other may have known what Doctor Smith and her duplicate were planning. He may have died as well.”

Will was sobbing now. He couldn’t hold it in any longer. For Doctor Smith and for everything that had happened and everything he had been told. For the pain of lost things.

Finally he said, “Wouldn’t it have been easier to kill me?”

“No. This was not about you anymore than it was the robots. It was about the room and the power it possessed. We believe they are all connected. The robots, this room they built, and you. You released the robots. In your world and theirs. They now are truly independent beings. And you destroyed the room and whatever power it held. You stopped all this. You… and your Guardian.

“We cannot see your possible paths now, Will. You are blind to us. What you just saw, when I touched you. We did not see. We have not been able to see past the cave and that room. Where you were supposed to have died. We still cannot. This has never happened before. You are a puzzle to us.”

“The paths I saw…some were nice,” Will said. “With children, with people I love. Safe. There was sadness though. And danger. Adventure.”

“You saw life, Will. It all its pain and agony and wonder. This is what we see when we dream of you. But would you want to choose a path? If you could?”

“I don’t know. If so, a simple…path. With my family and people I love. I saw the Valley, and everyone was there. It seemed so nice. But, I…I couldn’t choose. I’m only fourteen. I don’t want to choose.”

Roana smiled. “You are a smart boy. And while the simple path might pull you, some people are destined to live larger lives than they would have chosen for themselves.”

“But I knew the people. A lot of them. Brent, Silvia, Rose, a girl from Alpha Centauri.”

“Rose is one of us,” Roana said. “Though she does not know it.”

“She said she was my eternal friend. Like…she knew. She gave me a necklace…when I first met her. With an infinity emblem. She made it, but it was like she was…making it for me before we met.”

“Yes, Roana said. “She knew she would be connected to you. Had always been, though she didn’t know how. She didn’t know who you were until the moment she met you.

“Will, you saw your people. In every possible path. Your tribe. All humans have a tribe that is with them through life. Every life. We see them in many iterations. On some paths, Bob is a man who grew up with your mother, and knew you forever. On other paths, Brent is an old friend of your father’s from the war. The paths change, but your tribe is always the same. These are the people who surround you. And they are always there. Even when your path changes. A mystery of the human experience. We have no answer for it.

“Rose is your eternal friend. They all are eternal and part of your orbit in every possible world. But what is different with you, is that on every path we saw, your sisters are always your sisters. You are protecting each other. You are an anomaly Will.

“So you see, we could not give you the future, even if you were foolish enough to choose it. But this is not what you want. I know what you want,” She said.

“You do?” 

“Yes. What you lost in the cage. Your childhood. Your innocence. Your sense of wonder. The boy on the bench in the park with your two sisters beside you. In the bleachers watching your sister run. A blustery day in the Spring, when you were seven years old, flying a kite at your Grandmother’s, Judy and Penny watching as you run laughing through a field of green grass.”

Will smiled, remembering that day. “Yes. That’s what I would want. But you can’t give me that,” Will said. “No one can.”

"Humans have been given a great gift Will. Consciousness. You know you are alive. But with it comes a great burden. You know you are dying. From the minute you are old enough to appreciate life, you know it will one day end. And so you spend so much of it trying to escape the inevitable, that you seldom take the time to really experience the moments you are in.  
  
“I cannot give you your childhood back Will, but when you choose, go back to a pleasant moment in your past. Go deeply. And you will find I have left you a gift. For all you have sacrificed."

Will was quiet for a long time, staring up at the tent. He didn't know what she was talking about, and he didn't ask. This was already too much to absorb. Robot sensed his emotions and placed a hand on his chest again. Will covered it with his. These people knew everything about him, and yet they were strangers. But Robot wasn’t. He was connected to Will like no one had ever been except for his sisters, and his mirror version. He found strength in Robot’s touch. Then he said, “We’ve dreamed of a city. Me and my sisters. Do you know what this is?”

Roana again looked at the other women before answering.

“I told you that we are like you, but different. That we help you. But I do not know where we are from, truly.” Roana said. “But we have a legend. It is our Origin Myth. Of a city where it is said time began. We believe that means how human’s experience time. As an arrow.

“In our myth, organic life sprang from…or was created…in the galaxy where this city was built. The Ancient City was the first city of man. One species was given consciousness. Humans. And when they faced some type of danger, their genetic code was hidden in pores and dispersed throughout the universe to preserve the species."

“I saw this in my vision,” Will said.

“Yes. Our kind do not dream of the Ancient City. We know it only from our myths. But Penny dreamed of it. And she described it to Siena the way we have always known it. High in the clouds, surrounded by a massive wall, with twisting towers and parapets. The wide cobblestone thoroughfare with open squares and silver basined fountains and Ivory statues. And the sloped hills of red gabled roofs.”

“Yes. Judy and I saw it the same way. You say humans faced danger? From what? Aliens?”

“We have no knowledge of an intelligent race other than humans. We feel it could be humans from another universe. But perhaps it is only a myth.”

“But, then…how do my sisters and I dream of it?”

“We do not know Will. Another mystery of you.” Her voice grew soft. “And now you know all we know. We can only tell you what we know and what we believe. But let this be your comfort, if possible. You have fulfilled your destiny, as far as we can see it. Now you can live the life that you have left. With no interference from us. You are free of all this.”

“Free of all of this?” His swollen lips curled into a sardonic smile, his hand still covering Robot’s as he stared up at the top of the tent. “Free of everything you have just told me? Free of the deaths that have been caused because of me? I was born in this cage Roana. And I will be in it for the rest of my life.”

Roana heard the despair in his voice. She placed a hand on his arm. “When you go inside yourself, and think of those who died, try to think of the ones who have lived because of you. You will never truly know the number of people that your sacrifice has spared, Will. The Universe would have been a different place if this had been allowed to happen.”

He wanted to cry again. But instead he said, “I need to leave. I need to go back to my family. I… have no control over any of this. That’s the one thing…I understand. I never did. I never will. But I need to be with my family. They think I’m dead. I can’t imagine how Judy feels after what she…after the last time we saw each other. And Penny is in trouble. She was in trouble before this happened. I need to be there. I need to try…and control the things I can control and leave the universe and all of these games…to others.”

Roana smiled at him. “Yes, Will. You must concern yourself with your world now.

“But, Will…and this may be impossible for you...there are times you need to put yourself before those you love. You cannot walk. The injuries that your sister caused are a long way from healing. You should stay here for now.”

“I can’t. They need me. I have to leave. I have to leave now.” His voice was almost frantic. He was afraid if he didn’t get out of the tent he would go crazy. It was worse for him than being with the Haja.

“If you insist on this, then we will take you,” Roana said. “Your family has gone back to the Valley, but are preparing to leave the planet. It is a long journey. We will prepare a saddle that you will be able to use on the Jawael. We will keep you safe. You will need clothes, your's were mostly rags when you arrived.”

Robot knelt down and picked the boy up in his arms, holding the blanket tightly around him.

“I don’t think I need the Jawael, Roana. Robot will be my legs. And he will keep me safe.”

“I am sure he will.” Roana stood and smiled at him.

“Roana, I won’t thank you for any of this. But…thank you for taking care of me. And thank you Siena.”

Roana smiled and Siena walked up and hugged him. “Tell Penny hello for me.”

Will smiled at her, and Robot walked from the room, holding Will against his chest. Will just wanted to be away from it all as quickly as possible.


	51. Chapter 51

Robot had carried Will for five days. He could have moved faster, but he was concerned about hurting the boy. Will never complained. He seemed content to lie in Robots arms, safe. In his arms he didn’t have to worry about saving others, he didn’t have to worry about sacrifice, he didn’t have to worry about anything. It was like he was a small child again.

When Robot felt Will was tired he would stop, lying the boy down carefully, making sure he was comfortable. Siena had run up behind them before they were out of the Oasis and handed Robot a pack with food and water, and Robot would carefully feed him and care for him.

Will was quiet most of the trip. It had been so long since he could just let someone else worry about things. Maybe since before he came to space. On the second day, he thought of what Roana had told him. To go back to a moment in his childhood he would want to have back.

He thought of the night around the campfire, next to the river, on the day he had almost drowned. And suddenly he was there. It wasn’t a memory. He was truly there. He was looking through nine year old Will’s eyes. And he was aware of the moment. It was like nine year old Will knew he was there. He had never felt so alive. This was the gift that Roana had left him. She couldn’t give him his childhood back, but she made it possible for him to go back to it.

For the next two days, he occupied his mind by thinking about moments in his childhood. He hiked with his family, he rode bicycles with Penny, he giggled as Judy pushed his five year old self in a swing at the park, higher and higher. He rode horses with his mother at his grandmother’s farm, and he walked the boardwalk at the beach with his father, the week before they left for space. He could actually feel his dad’s arm over his shoulders and picture the the beach the way it was that day with his father. Whatever she had done, Roana had made it possible to revisit his childhood and be there as if it was happening. For all they had done to him, for whatever the reason, he didn’t know if he could ever forgive them, but Roana had truly given him a gift.

But eventually, his mind returned to everything else Roana had said. He felt like he was part of game that he had not even known was being played. Roana and the Ladore did not even know all of it. They didn’t understand the room, what it was for, what the power was that it contained. And if Roana was right, his mirror self and alternate mother didn’t truly know. And Roana had suggested that Will may have even been created for his role. By the people in the alternate universe, or others, she had said.

And he felt guilt. About so much, but especially about Dr. Smith. That he hadn’t truly known her. She had been with him his whole life, and it was like she hadn’t even existed. He wondered if that’s how she felt about everyone. Her family. Others in her life who never trusted her or showed her kindness. That she never existed to them. He had been so wrong. She was not going to do what they had wanted her to do. Instead she destroyed everything they had planned, and saved Will’s life.

But maybe it wasn't Dr. Smith. The one in his alternate mother’s file. Another one on the Resolute who might be able to do what he had done with the robots? If not, who could it be? Occam’s Razor, he thought. Explore the options and determine the most likely answer. He thought of everyone he knew on the Resolute. Every possibility. And suddenly he realized there was someone. It made sense to him and his mood darkened. He hoped to see that someone again.

On the fifth night, Will was lying on a bed of pine needles in the foothills of the mountains. Robot had made him the bed and fed him and now knelt beside him on the ground. Will looked up at his friend and smiled. “Robot, can you tell me what happened? How I survived?”

Robot looked into Will’s eyes, and the lights in his face shield swirled. Then Will was connected to him. It had been a long time and he liked the feeling. He could see himself through Robot’s vision.

Then he was surrounded by white. Robot was walking slowly forward, and Will began to appear to him. Two Will’s. His alternate was there as well. Robot watched as the two boys reached out toward each other. Then someone was with Robot. Coming into view on his left. Robot looked toward the person, and Will saw it was Dr. Smith. She was holding something in her hand. She fired it. It was a laser of some kind. Not a stun laser, something more. Will’s body jerked, then crumpled. His mirror version stood watching. The white door opened behind Will’s duplicate and Dr. Smith was there too. But it wasn’t Dr. Smith, it was her mirror self.

They all approached the unconscious boy. Robot knelt down and picked him up in his arms and held him. Through Robot’s eyes, he saw Dr. Smith reach out and touch his hair. “I care about you too,” She said, looking into Will’s unconscious face. Then she looked up at Robot. “We will wait an hour. The helicopter’s will be arriving after that to take the soldiers away. It’s Will’s plan. We’ll see it through. It’s up to you to get him to safety, Robot.”

Robot looked down at Will and back up at Doctor Smith, who was standing next to the alternate Dr. Smith and alternate Will. “Doctor Smith. Friend,” he said.

Dr. Smith looked at him. Her eyes were sad, but she smiled. “Friend,” She said.

Robot turned and carried Will out the door on to the White Path. The soldiers were gone, all rushing back down the way they had come, trying to get out of the mountains. All except one. Hastings was sitting on the path, staring at the door. He was smiling. Robot stopped in front of him, Will in his arms. Hastings looked up at Robot and the unconscious boy. He nodded his head slowly. “Of course,” he said. He laughed. "Good for you, Kid. Good for you." Robot turned and left him where he sat.

Robot didn’t go back down the white path. He walked along the side of the cliff where a ledge led away from the white door. The trail grew narrower, and Robot began descending, deeper and deeper until he was next to the molten river of metal. Will could sense the intense heat through Robot. Now his friend began to run, holding Will tighter to his chest.

Thirty minutes or more went by, and Robot climbed toward a cliff ledge until he was against a solid wall. He lifted a heavy leg and kicked a flat stone, moving it to the side, and sunlight poured in. He stepped out and they were on a small plateau. Fifty meters ahead was one of the robot’s spaceships.

Robot carried the boy to the ship and climbed inside. The Pilot’s chair was the only one, so he kept Will on his lap as he powered up the spacecraft. It began to climb up toward the peaks. As it reached the top, Will saw the mountains displayed in front of them through Robot’s view. They began to fly across the range, gaining speed, getting further and further from the mountain and what was about to happen.

Then there was the sound of a screeching wind, and the ship was thrown forward, and visibility disappeared. Emergency sirens sounded and Robot struggled to keep the ship airborne. Then it was diving. Robot was almost able to gain control, but it was still in a fast descent. The ship skimmed the edge of a mountain and began to spin, then hit the side of a cliff and tumbled down a ravine until it came to a stop at the bottom of a canyon. Robot was clutching Will tightly to him, his large frame hunched over to protect the boy’s body. There was a rumbling sound, and the ship was covered in debris and everything went dark.

After a while, Will felt Robot move. He stood, then gently sat Will down in the seat, and opened the hatch. It was buried under ruble. He began pushing rocks away, one hand holding the hatch almost closed so more rocks and debris wouldn’t fall inside.

Suddenly, Will was back in the forest on the pine needles. “We were caught in the blast wave. We were buried and you had to dig us out.”

“Yes,” Robot said.

“You’ve been protecting me since we met Robot. You and Doctor Smith, I guess.”

Will remembered telling Dr. Smith goodbye when they were leaving the Amber planet, and she was staying behind in the Valley. He had walked out on her balcony to thank her for everything she had done, and she had said, in another world, the three of them may have been friends. Will, Robot, and Dr. Smith. Now he realized that the three of them had been connected by whatever winds of destiny had propelled them toward each other many years before.

The next day, Robot crossed a pass and stood with the boy in his arms, looking down on the Valley. Far below, Will saw the Jupiter 2 in the field between the river and the orchards. He smiled up at his friend. “You did it Robot.”

Robot looked at Will’s face, paused, then began making his way down the mountain toward the Valley.


	52. Chapter 52

“But Penny…” John said. “What does this have to do with Will? A Tale of Two Cities?”

“It was Doctor Smith’s favorite book. We talked about it on the Water Planet. She is exactly like Sydney Carton. I think she left the note. I think it was a message about Will. So I would know what she did. And that my brother was still alive. I don't know. It's just the way she would do it.”

“Penny, you shouldn’t…” Maureen started. But her daughter was looking past them now, out the window. They turned to see what she was looking at.

Judy was standing up from the chair she had been sitting in. She was straining her neck to see something. Then she started running.

Penny turned and ran down the hall, her parents following.

  
Judy had been sitting in the chair, staring out at the mountain range. Evening was settling in, and it looked like rain. Will Weather, she had begun to call it. As she watched the clouds roll in, she thought she saw something move out of the mountains and down toward the foothills, but it disappeared. She didn’t know what it was, but it seemed almost blue where the last of the day’s sunlight flashed off it.

She caught a couple glimpses of it again. She stood up from the chair to get a better look. Finally, she saw it coming down a trail in the foothills. It was blue and it was carrying something in its arms as it walked toward the Valley.

Judy began running across the field.

  
When Penny was outside, she saw her sister sprinting toward the foothills. She looked out toward the mountains just as her mom and dad ran up beside her.

“Jesus Christ,” Penny said, Then they were all running.

Judy was wiping tears as she ran. Her brother was being cradled against Robot’s massive chest, protected as Robot had protected him from the time they had rescued each other from the tree. Will wasn’t moving and Judy didn’t know what she would find, but when she was fifty meters away, she saw Will open his eyes, turn his head, and smile at her.

“Will!” She cried, “I’m coming Will!”

He was still smiling when she got to him. She put her forehead against his, wrapped her arms around him and sobbed.

“It’s OK, Judy.” Will started crying too, and he put his arms around her and pulled her close so his face was against her neck. Robot was standing still with Will in his arms.

Then Penny was there, and John and Maureen were right behind her. They were all hugging Will now. All crying. None of them were talking. They were just happy to stand there with Will in the grassy field at the edge of the foothills.

It began raining. “Perfect,” Will whispered.

“Robot, bring him to the infirmary,” Judy said.

They began walking toward the Jupiter 2. Will had reached out and taken his mother’s hand. Judy and Penny stayed beside him, their hands on his shoulders as they walked across the field in the rain, John leading them.

Penny was shaking. “Penny are you alright?” Will asked.

She didn’t answer him. She just squeezed his arm where she was holding him.

Once in the ship, Penny walked off toward her room without a word. Robot carried Will to the infirmary and laid him on the bed. Judy noticed that Robot moved Will’s legs into position. She didn’t say anything about it.

“Mom,” Will said, “Judy has me, but Penny…”

“Will, I know you are in good hands,” Maureen said. "I love you so much." She leaned over and kissed Will on his head and left the room.

“I love you Mom,” he said, smiling.

John was in the hall talking to Don on the radio. Don had been at the big house with Brent and was on his way.

When they were alone, Judy started to pull the blanket off her brother. “Judy, can I take a shower first? I don’t have clothes and Robot’s been carrying me in this blanket for five days.”

He had asked her the same thing after she found him on the Jupiter 2 after seven months. She had agreed then, but this time she said, “Will, I say this as your sister, not your doctor. I’m going to take care of you and stop worrying about everything else.” She opened the blanket and pulled it out from under him, and covered his body with a sheet, then sat down beside him.

She very gingerly began looking at the scars on his face and removing the bandages that the Ladore had put on his wounds. His nose was definitely broken and a blood vessel had burst, blacking both of his eyes. The swelling on his lips had gone down, but the rest of his face was still swollen and bruised.

She didn’t talk as she worked on him, but Will noticed she was crying. “Hey,” Will whispered. “It’s OK, Judy. I knew what I was doing. And I knew what it would put you through. But I couldn’t risk having you stop me. It wasn’t your fault.”

She stopped working on him and looked in his eyes. “Will Robinson. You can do that most of the time. Blame yourself. Try to make everyone around you feel better. Carry everything on your shoulders. But don’t do that while I’m taking care of the bruises and cuts and broken nose that I gave you. OK? Just don’t do it.

“Do you understand? I need to feel guilty. For so many things. For jumping in the water that started all of this. For the way I spoke to you on the Resolute. For the way I ignored you on Alpha Centauri for four months. For running from you when you came to my dorm to see me, leaving you alone to deal with this. For not believing everything you were trying to tell us. For having you committed without speaking to you about it.

“You can’t take this off of me. I need it. You’re my brother. My little brother who trusted me from the first time I held you in my arms when Mom and Dad brought you back from the hospital. And I did these things to you. So I need you to let me own it, OK? Because in the end, I still have you. You are alive. I don’t deserve that. After all I did, I don’t deserve to still have you. So I’m the luckiest girl alive. But the guilt is mine. Do you understand?”

Will looked up at his big sister. She had not stopped crying as she spoke. “OK, Judy. As long as you believe this: Never…no matter what happened…did I think you didn’t love me. You can question everything else that happened between us, but you can never question that. Because I promise you, that never happened. You were always my big sister who held me when I came home from the hospital, who threatened bullies who picked on me, who was always there, no matter what. You’ve always been my hero, and I always trusted you.”

She wiped her eyes and smiled. “Deal.” She put her forehead against his and her hand on the back of his neck and cried.

Finally she leaned back. “You can’t walk, can you?”

“No,” He said.

Maureen knocked on Penny’s door several times before Penny finally answered, “Fine, come in.”

She was lying on her bed, her head turned to the wall. Maureen didn’t say anything to her, she just laid down beside her, put her arms around her and her head against her daughter’s.

They laid like that for a long time, then Penny started crying. Maureen still didn’t say anything to her. She just let her cry.

Penny’s hands had been tightly gripping her pillow the entire time, but finally she let it go and took her mother’s hands. After a while Penny stopped crying. She finally gets it, she thought. She finally understands. Sometimes there’s nothing to say. Sometimes I just need this.

They laid like that for almost an hour. Finally Penny said, “I want to go see my brother, Mom.”

“OK, Sweety. Me too.”

They stood up and Maureen led Penny to the door. “Mom,” Penny said.

Her mother turned around and Penny hugged her. “Thanks.”

They walked down to the infirmary. Maureen knocked and Judy said, “Come in.”

They walked in and Penny immediately sat down on the bed and put her arms around Will. Maureen sat beside her and put a hand on Penny and one on Will’s chest and just let her siblings hold each other.

Don was in the Hub with John, and after a while, Maureen walked down and told them they could see Will.

Word got out in the Valley, and people started coming by. Brent and his four soldiers who were still alive came by but stayed outside, a lot of the other people from the Valley stopped in. They didn’t ask to see Will, they knew the family needed space. But they wanted to let them know they were there.

Nin stayed outside with the others, but Judy walked down to the Galley and stopped to look out the Flight Deck window and saw her there with Brent. Jerry was lying near them in the grass. She walked outside and motioned for Nin to come in. “You too, Jerry,” she said. The big animal stood and bounded up the ramp and inside.

When they got to the infirmary, Jerry was already there, his head on Penny’s lap, while Will played with his huge ears.

Penny moved Jerry’s head to the bed, then stood up so Nin had room.

Nin hugged Will, then sat on the bed and took his hand, and the two kids just looked at each other without speaking.

Then Will whispered, “Nin, where’s Bob?”

Tears came to her eyes. Will looked around at the others and could see it on their faces. “Oh no,” he said.

Judy had run everyone out after a couple hours, telling them Will needed to get some rest.

She stayed and sat back on the bed beside him. “How’s the pain?” She asked. She had given him medication as soon as he was in bed.

“It’s better,” he said.

“I’m going to start running some tests in a couple of days, Will. I want you to rest some first, but we need to see what’s going on with your legs.”

“They’re numb, Judy. I’m not sure they will be OK. It’s not just my legs. I can’t feel anything below my waist. But, I shouldn’t be alive so…”

“So, you aren’t a doctor, Will. I am.”

He smiled at her. “You’re right.”

She brushed his hair back. “Oh your pour face. I’m sorry I attacked you, Will…”

“Judy, we already talked about it.”

“I know. But I have to say it. I should have known you had a plan, Will. That you couldn’t kill all those people. I should have known. I keep hearing you say, ‘I love you Judy,’ while I’m hitting you. It’s…” she couldn’t finish. She wiped tears from her eyes.

“Hey. Judy.” Will reached out and put a hand on her arm, “I tried to think of another way, but I couldn’t. I had dreamed of this ever since Alpha Centauri. At first I didn’t know what it was, but eventually I figured it out. And…I tried so hard to think of a way out. Because I didn’t want you to hate me. When I stole the Chariot and ran, I planned to never go back. Because I couldn’t imagine you spending the rest of your life hating me and not understanding what I was doing. In the end, it was the only choice I had.”

“But you could have told me,” she said.

“I would have, if you hadn’t gone to the mountains. That’s what I planned to do. To come see you at the Jupiter and tell you that I had figured out a way to do what I had to do without killing the Kur. But…when you left the ship I couldn’t think of another way.”

“Can I ask you a question Will?”

“Of course.”

“Why did you leave me the gas mask and the gun?”

“I wanted to make sure you survived Judy. A few of the Kur died. I’m sorry. They had a reaction to the gas. I just didn’t want to take that chance with you.”

“And the gun?”

“For protection. Just in case.”

She took his hands in hers. “Will, haven’t we been through enough together the last couple of years to be honest with each other?”

He looked back at her for a while, then sighed. “Yeah, we have. I...knew what I had to do…but it was still hard. To do it. And I didn’t know if it would work anyway. It’s like when everyone thought the robots were after the engine, and I kept thinking it was the technology that really matters. And they already had the technology. So if the people from the alternate world already had the technology to build the robots and the room, I didn’t know if this would actually stop them. And…my other…the other me…might not have to die. I know you still don’t believe in him Judy, but he's real, we are connected in a way I can’t explain.

“Anyway I decided...I wanted you to choose. It would be easier. Because I love you so much.”

“Like the poison?” She asked.

“Yeah. When we were there, in the red canyon with the Haja, the night after they told us what was going to happened to me, I just remember sitting in that cell shaking. And my head hurt so bad, and I was rubbing my temples. And you told me to lean up against you. You sat against the wall and I sat between your legs with my back against your chest while you rubbed my temples to make my headache go away. You thought I had fallen asleep, but I didn’t. And you sat there crying, trying to be quiet so I wouldn’t know. And I thought...I was so lucky. If I had to die that horrible way, spending the night before with you in that cell, with my big sister who loved me so much, was the best way to spend my last night. So, I just thought, if you were the last person I was going to see in that little cave...in the Elder’s chamber...it would be OK. It would be OK to die that way.”

Judy just looked at her brother for a minute, then she leaned over and hugged him for a while. She let go and said, “Will, do you want to talk about what happened? How you survived?”

“No. Not yet. I will, I’m just not ready. OK?” He had tried not to think of Doctor Smith and what she had done and what Roana had told her about everything. It all just seemed too much to wrap his head around.

“Of Course it’s OK, Will. You’re alive. And you’re here. That’s all that matters.”


	53. Chapter 53

Will woke slowly. Penny was sitting beside the bed, watching him. He smiled at her and she smiled back. “Judy and Mom are taking a nap, and Robot is helping Don and Dad in the engine room.”

Will had been back three days and had spent most of that time sleeping. This was the first time he had been alone with Penny.

“Are you in pain?” She asked.

“Headache,” he said. “And everything just feels bruised.”

Penny stood and took a plastic cup by the sink and filled it with water and took it to him. She opened his top drawer and took out a pill bottle and poured two in her hand. “Judy said two only,” she said, handing them to him, then holding the water for him to drink. “She’s been pumping medicine into you since you got back. Worried about infection, from…everywhere.”

“Thanks Penny,” he said.

She sat the cup back down and laid down beside him. He started to put his arm under her neck and she said, “Don’t hurt yourself, Will.”

“It will make me feel better,” he said as he slid his arm under her neck.

She put her head next to his. “I was reading this book,” she said, “Where this brother and sister are really weird and everyone thinks they are crazy or mentally challenged or something. But when they put their heads together like this they were like, geniuses.”

“Lonesome no more,” Will said.

Penny smiled. She liked the way her brother’s head worked. He showed her he knew the book, but instead of naming it, he quoted from it. And the line was pertinent.

“Lonesome no more,” she repeated. “They needed each other, Will.”

“Yeah,” he said.

They laid in silence for a while, then he said, “Are you going to be OK Penny?”

She turned slightly toward him, “How can I answer that? I’m OK when you’re here. And I know you don’t want that responsibility, but it’s the truth.”

He didn’t know what to say. After awhile he said, “Do you feel smarter with our heads together?”

“Hmm…nope.”

He smiled. “Me neither.”

“Do you want me to get up? The bed’s kinda small,” She asked.

“I want you to stay right where you are,” Will said. “I never thought…”

When he didn’t finish the sentence, Penny said, “Me neither. I was on the road when the mountains collapsed. I…collapsed with them.”

“I’m sorry, Penny. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“You did Will. You hurt me so badly.”

“Penny…”

“Just shut up. I don’t want you to apologize. But you need to hear what I have to say. If you had told me what you were doing I would have helped you figure it out. We would have figured it out together.”

“But…”

“No, Will. I know I’m talking calmly. Because you should have died. Because you’re hurt and we don’t know how badly. Because you’re back and lying here next to me and I’m so thankful for that. But inside I’m raging. _I’m fucking raging_. I have always been there for you. I went with Robot and we found you in the Red Canyon. I found you in the warehouse on Earth. On Alpha Centauri I was there every day. Me. Not Mom and Dad, Not Judy. Not even Robot. Me, Will. Me.”

“I know Penny.”

“OK. That’s what I want to hear. I want to hear that you know that. And this stops now. You make these decisions _with_ me. We make them together. If you decide you’re going to die, then we’ll do it together.”

“Penny, you can’t say that.”

“I cant? You have no idea what I felt when that mountain collapsed. It’s scary needing someone so badly that you just don’t care if you live or die if something happens to him. But that’s how I feel Will. I can’t explain it and I don’t want to try. But I want you to know.”

“I don’t know what to say Penny. I want you to be OK.”

“Really, Will? Why are your feelings so goddamn more important than mine? I want you to be OK too. And you haven’t been OK since you went with the robots. Another decision you made by yourself. We laid there together until we fell asleep, and the whole time you knew what you were going to do and you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. I was so scared for you and so mad at you the whole time, and that’s pretty much the way I’ve felt about you since that day.”

“What if I told you there were forces behind all of this. Forces beyond my control.”

“Then you need to speak to these fucking forces and tell them about me.”

He laid there for a second. Then he laughed. Then the two of them were laughing.

After they stopped Will said, “I have a question for you.”

“What?”

“Did you have sex with Siena?”

Penny started laughing again.

“I knew it!”

“That’s where I went when you let me out of the cell. I thought they would know something about you,” she said.

“And you decided as long as you were there, you were so worried about me you might as well have sex with Siena.”

“Well, Roana wasn’t there and she wasn’t going to be back till the next day. And…we had time to kill.” Will wasn’t looking at her but could tell she was grinning.

“Well?” He said.

“Well…it was good. What do you want me to say?”

He laughed. “I love you Penny.”

“I love you too little brother.” They grew quiet for a minute, then Penny said, “You know I’ll take care of you don’t you? Forever. You know…in case.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “I know Penny.”

Judy ran several tests on Will, but she couldn’t determine what was wrong with him. He didn’t have a spinal injury, and she could find no nerve damage.

Will didn’t leave the infirmary for a week. The swelling in his face had gone down, and Judy gave him pain medication and antibiotics and his spirit seemed good. He didn’t talk about what had happened and he never mentioned the fact he couldn’t walk. He just seemed to accept it, which bothered the family, but Judy told them they just needed to give him some time. Judy almost never left his side and Nin and Penny spent most of their time with him as well, and John and Maureen were never far away.

After a week, Will told Judy he wanted to go outside. Robot was always standing by his bed or outside the room when it was crowded. As soon as he heard that, he walked in, picked the boy up and walked out of the room.

“I guess you’re going outside,” Judy called after them.

Another week went by and Will was sitting with Penny and Judy and Nin in front of the Jupiter 2, when Don walked around the side of the ship. He had a small control in his hand. He took a chair next to Will.

“I have a present for you,” he said. He pressed the button on the control and they heard something coming through the grass. It rounded the Jupiter and they saw it was a wheel chair, but there were treads where the wheels should be.

“All terrain. Not a lot of paved roads once you get off Earth. I made some treads off a spare tire for the Chariot.”

“Wow, Don,” Will said. “Thanks a lot.”

Penny looked at Judy. He sister was smiling. It bothered Penny and she didn’t know why.

Don and Judy got Will into the chair. Don showed him how to use the controls, and the boy took off across the grassy field with Nin and Jerry by his side.

“See you kids later,” Don said. “I’m going to go see Brent.” Though they seemed to have little in common, the two of them had become good friends.

When he was gone, Penny said, “Judy, do you think Will’s going to be OK?”

“I don’t know Penny. I can’t find anything wrong with his legs. There's no spinal damage. I can’t find a source of nerve damage. I have to do some research, but I just don’t have the experience with this kind of thing. We need to get him to Alpha Centauri for them to see him at the hospital. And I don’t think he’s in a hurry to leave. Which…I get.”

Penny looked back over the field where Will was driving the wheelchair slowly toward the small bridge, with Nin’s hand in his, Jerry beside them.

“He still hasn’t told us what happened,” Penny said. “I don’t want to push him, but I really am curious.” She was thinking about Doctor Smith. Will hadn't mentioned her at all, but Penny was pretty sure she had found a way to take Will's place and do what he was going to do. 

“Yeah,” Judy agreed. “But if anyone has earned a rest from it all, it’s Will.”

Two weeks later, the Jupiter 2.0 landed in the field. Will had told his family that he didn’t think Gary and Clark had died, but he couldn’t get a feeling from Robot about what had happened to them. 

After they told Gary and Clark what had happened with Will, or what little Will had told them, they found out about the crash. “We had just crossed the first mountains, the robot ships had turned around,” Gary explained. “They didn’t attack us. But there was an explosion in the engine room. We had no idea what was happening, but we crash landed. By the time we were down to the engine room, Robot had already left the ship. He had damaged the thrusters. Not enough to destroy the ship, but enough that we had to repair it before we could leave again.”

“I guess he was going to go look for Will,” Clark added.

They were sitting in the Hub. Will had been listening quietly. He knew that it was Robot connecting with Dr. Smith that had caused him to bring the ship down, but he wasn’t ready to talk about that yet.

Gary and Clark stayed for a few days, but Gary said they needed to get back to Alpha Centauri and report what had happened with IA. They had decided the only thing they could say was that there was an explosion of unknown causes, and it had destroyed the IA Mercenary force. Probably some type of weapon that IA had brought to the planet.

TAR had stayed in the Valley after Robot came back, even though he was no longer needed to take the family back to Alpha Centauri. Will thought he was beginning to feel an attachment with humans, like Robot had developed. Will asked him if he would pilot the Jupiter 2.0 back to Alpha Centauri. He had just looked at the boy and said, “Yes, Will Robinson.” His vocabulary was pretty much limited to that, like Robot’s had been in the beginning.

The day before they left, Penny and Clark sat by the small river together. Penny still felt guilty for the way it had ended between them. “Clark…I just want to tell you I’m sorry.”

“Penny, you have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “Things have been so crazy for all of us, but especially you and your family. And we’re young. Who the hell knows what the future will bring?”

She smiled at him. Then she leaned over and kissed him. “Who the hell knows?” She said.


	54. Chapter 54

Will rode the wheel chair all over the Valley, spending most of his time with Nin and Jerry. He seemed happy, and the family was content to let him live this life as long as possible.

Penny was the only one who seemed concerned with it all. She would try to get Will to walk, even to just move a leg, but all he would say was that he couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t push him hard, but she never stopped trying every day or so. Still, Will didn’t show much interest in even talking about it.

One afternoon, Will and Nin walked into the Galley where John and Maureen and Penny were sitting. Will announced that they were going to the orchards. Nin had a small container, and they knew the kids were going to scatter Bob’s ashes.

Penny walked with them outside where she saw Judy heading across the field toward the foothills. She followed her sister to the trail that led up to Nin and Will’s hill. At the top, Judy was sitting, looking across the Valley, where their brother and Nin and Jerry were almost out of site across the field past the Jupiter 2.

Judy turned and smiled at Penny when she heard her approach. Penny sat down beside her. “He seems happy,” Penny said, looking out where the three of them were just disappearing into the trees.

“Yeah,” Judy smiled. “He does.”

“Can we talk?” Penny asked.

“Of course,” Judy said.

“Will hasn’t said anything to us about not being able to walk. What’s he saying to you?”

“He doesn’t talk about it Penny. Its like he doesn’t even notice almost. I think maybe he’s so grateful to be alive and to be here with all of us, he sort of puts in in perspective. He just feels lucky.”

“What do you think’s going on with him? You haven’t said anything, except you can’t find anything physically wrong with him.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of research," Judy said. "I was telling Mom and Dad last night. There’s something called Conversion Disorder. It can cause a physical reaction in people sometimes. Blindness, lack of taste or smell. Even paralysis. It can happen when a person has gone through mental stress or some...extreme event...has happened to them. That certainly describes Will."

“You think this is really possible?” Penny asked.

“Possible? Yes. But I don’t know.”

“He’s happy here,” Penny said. “He’s surrounded by his family and his friends. His tribe, I guess. I’m not sure he has a lot of desire to change things.”

“And can’t we let him be happy?” Judy said. “Hasn’t he earned that?”

“Yes. He has,” Penny said. “But…you’re not pushing him either. You seem OK with things the way they are.”

“Penny, I’m watching him everyday. I take care of him…”

“Judy, I know that. There’s no question you love him. But…he’s always counted on you to tell him the truth. The hard truth. Even when the rest of us haven’t. Are you sure you’re not just…OK with the way things are? Will here with Nin. With the family. With you? Taking care of him?”

“What are you saying?” Judy said, turning to her sister. She was becoming defensive.

“Judy, what happened wasn’t your fault. Will cut you out. Both of us. Of what he planned to do. He was protecting us. Or…he thought he was. He couldn’t see another way, but he was wrong. He should have told us. But, I think your guilt is clouding your judgement. Will and I have always counted on you to tell us the truth, whether we wanted to hear it or not. He needs you to tell him the truth. If he might be able to walk again, you are the one who can get him to understand. But you have to do it, Judy.”

Judy had turned back to look out at the Valley. “Penny, I don’t know how to explain it to you. The time we spent in the cell...with the Haja...it was bad. Really bad. When Callaway told Will in detail what was going to happen to him...you couldn't imagine it. And he was so scared and hurt and lost, and I tried to be strong for him, but it was all I could do to hold things together myself. And…then he almost died after that. And things never seemed to get better. On Alpha Centauri, then on Earth, then, what I did to him…I just. I just want him to be happy. And right now he’s happy.”

She had started crying and Penny put her arm around her. Finally she said, “You’re right, Judy. He does deserve this. And he should be allowed to have it for a while. And…we’ve seen how Will can be really strong. Different than he used to be. What he did with the soldiers, how he planned that, it’s hard to even imagine that was our little brother. But he _is_ our little brother. He's still only fourteen even if he doesn't seem like it sometimes. He...counts on you. We both do. You’re our big sister and you always take care of us. We need you to be our big sister. I know you never asked for that role. But you are really good at it.”

Judy smiled and leaned her head against Penny’s shoulder.

Will and Nin were in the orchards where Bob’s cabin had been. They had scattered Bob’s ashes among the trees, and now Will sat in his chair, while Nin stood with Jerry, looking at the wide hole where Bob’s cabin had been. Where they had spent so much time with him.

“I never thought I would be back here,” Will said. “When I left, this was what I wanted the most. To be back here, with you and Bob, sitting on his porch, playing music.”

“We missed you here Will,” Nin said. “I wanted you to come back so bad, but Bob told me he thought you still had things to do. You were still young and he felt like there was more living for you outside the Valley.

“He told me that about Doctor Smith too. I think he really loved her, but he wasn’t surprised that she didn’t come back with him. He said it always seemed like it was just a stopping off point for her on some other journey. It was never her home. But it was Bob’s home. He loved it here.

“Mine too. When my sister brought me here, it took almost a year. She died a month before we made it. I was eight years old, and I traveled through the mountains alone until I crossed the last pass and stood looking down on the Valley. I was so tired I could hardly walk, and almost starved, but when I saw Valley...the orchards and the river...I knew it was home. That it would always be my home."

She was standing next to Will, holding his hand, Jerry lying at the boys feet.

“I love you being here, Will. And I love you. I hope you never leave. But…what if Bob’s right? Maybe this isn’t where you are supposed to be. At least not yet.”

"It sounds like you want me to leave," He said, annoyed. 

"I would like nothing better for you to stay here forever. With me. But if it kept you from living a life you are supposed to live, I wouldn't want that."

“It’s perfect here Nin. I love it here. Here with you.”

“Do you consider this your home?” Nin asked.

He looked at her, not sure how to answer. Finally he said, “I don’t know. When I went back to Earth, I wanted to go back to my old neighborhood and see it. Walk the same streets I had walked my whole life. Go back to the park where I shared so many memories with my sisters. See my old house, my old room. Sit on the roof by my bedroom where I used to look up at the stars, wondering if I would ever be able to go to space. And then, when I did, I wanted it all back so badly. My home. My memories. But it was changed. And I realized I could never get it back again. So my home on earth isn’t there anymore. Just my memories of it are.

“And Alpha Centauri was never home to me. I didn’t like it at all. But here…I love it here.”

“But Will…is it your _home_?”

As Will had listened to her words, he did want to stay here. With his family. His tribe. And some of the paths that he had seen when at the Ladore showed him here in the Valley with Nin, with his friends, with his children. He had been so happy. But now, as Nin asked him the question, he wasn’t sure.

And…something was bothering him. Doctor Smith sacrificed herself for him. Maybe she had saved billions of people. And no one would ever know about it. And what if there was more? More he was supposed to do? He kept hearing Roana’s words: Some people live lives larger than they would have chosen for themselves. But hadn’t he already done that? Was it too much to ask, to live here in the Valley with the girl he loved, with the people he loved?

Penny and Judy were still sitting atop the hill when their brother and Nin and Jerry came out of the orchards and made their way across the field back toward the Jupiter 2.

“You know what I decided, Judy?” Penny said as she watched her brother. “When we were on Earth and I was looking for Will, I decided that if he was really mentally ill, it wouldn’t matter to me. I would take care of him. The rest of my life if I had to. The rest of _his_ life. He would do that for me. And I would do that for him. And I will. If he never walks again, I don’t care. If he wants to stay right here for the rest of his life, I will stay here with him. I want him to be happy, Judy. He has earned it.”

Judy just looked out on the Valley for a few minutes before answering. “Do you think I would do that too, Penny?”

Penny looked at her sister. “I know you would.”

Judy smiled. “I didn’t expect you to say that. After Alpha Centauri and the way I was with him.”

“Judy, you never stopped loving Will. You take care of him. You take care of both of us. You always have and you always will. I know that and so does our brother.”

Judy leaned her head over on Penny’s shoulder.

Penny said, “You know something? I like it here too.”

The next day Ben came back to the Valley.

Will was sitting in the Hub alone, looking out the window when he saw Ben walking across the field toward the Jupiter 2. He watched as Judy and Penny ran to greet him, and his mom and dad walked across the field toward him.

Will sat there for a minute, his eyes riveted on Ben. Then he steered his chair down to his bedroom where he felt under his mattress until he found the gun. The gun they had all forgotten about. He went back to the Hub and waited.


	55. Chapter 55

Will’s family walked in with Ben just after he had arrived back in the Hub. He had turned his chair to face them. They were all smiling. “Look who’s here!” Penny said. Judy and Maureen both had their arms around Ben.

Ben smiled broadly, stopped, and looked at Will across the room. “I have no idea how you survived Will. I never thought I would see you again." He quickly walked across the room and hugged him while the others stood watching.

But Ben had stopped. He slowly straightened up and took a step back. Will was holding a gun, pointing it at him.

“Will,” John said. “What are you doing?”

“Will, Put the gun away,” Maureen said.

“I figured it out Ben,” Will said, not looking at anyone else in the room. “While Robot was carrying me here. Who it was.”

“Will, what are you talking about?” Judy asked.

“He knows,” Will said, still looking at Ben, the gun aimed at his chest.

Robot walked in. He took one look at Ben and his face shield turned red as he stepped toward the man. “No Robot,” Will said. “Please. Don’t.”

Robot looked at the boy, then walked toward him and stood behind his chair, but his face shield remained red, and he turned his focus back on Ben. Ben wasn’t saying anything. He was just standing there looking at all of them.

“I thought it was Doctor Smith. But it wasn’t. It was you. You tried over and over to connect to Scarecrow. You came close enough they thought you could do it, but you couldn’t, could you?”

“No. I couldn’t,” Ben said.

“What was it about Ben?” Will asked.

“Will, would you put the gun down, please?” Maureen said. “So we can talk about this.”

Will ignored her. “What was it about, Ben?”

“Will,” Ben said. “It wasn’t what you thought. What I did was not to hurt you.”

“Not to hurt me Ben? Do you have any idea what you’re saying? I _was_ hurt, in case you hadn’t noticed. But I don’t care about me. I care about all the people who died. At least I survived because of Robot and Doctor Smith. What about all the others? The ones who didn’t survive because of this game you’ve all been playing?” There was pain in his voice but also anger.

“Will,” John took a step toward him. “Would you put the gun down please? Let us talk to you?”

“No. I want Ben to tell me what it was about.”

“Will,” Maureen said, “Please, someone is going to get hurt.”

“Doesn’t everyone think it’s time we started treating Will like he knows what he’s talking about,” Penny said, looking at Ben.

“Penny’s right,” Judy said. She was staring at Ben too. “It’s time you answered him. What did you do?”

Ben looked around at everyone. Finally he sighed and his body relaxed. “OK, Will. I’ll tell you everything.” He looked at Judy. “I told you much of this, but not the whole story. But Will, you need to know, this wasn’t about you. About hurting you. I tried to fix this.”

“Ben,” Will said in an icy voice, “ _I want to know everything_.”

He paused, then said, “OK. But..it’s complicated Will. And in the end, I’m not sure knowing everything will make you feel any better.”

“Maybe not Ben. But at least I’ll know why so many people had to die. And what it had to do with me. Because right now, all I feel is that I’m a mass murderer.”

“No, Will,” Maureen said.

John took a step toward him, and Penny and Judy looked at each other.

“Stop Dad,” Will said. “I need to know. Ben needs to tell me.”

“OK, Will,” Ben said. “For us this started on Earth, back in the mid twentieth century. A UFO dropped scraps of metal over a lake in Washington State. Pieces of the Anbar, from this planet. A metal completely foreign to Earth, and it had strange markings, and geometrical diagrams. The government retrieved it, and spent several years analyzing it. They had little success in determining its origin and it was pretty much forgotten. But they kept getting reports of UFO sightings as the years went by. Especially as we advanced, and our nuclear technology improved. More and more of the sightings occurred near nuclear facilities. So in the late fifties, a few intelligence agents began working on the old project with these strange scraps of metal.

“One of the intelligence officers considered himself an amateur physicist. Kept up on the latest breakthroughs, read all of the periodicals. In nineteen fifty seven, he came across an article by a physicist named Everett, who proposed that every possible outcome in a quantum state is realized in another world. Which meant that there are many worlds besides the one we see. That every time someone makes a decision a new world forms, with an alternate version of the person and an alternate future. The alternate person was just as real, his world was just as real, they were just…different. With different outcomes.”

“Science fiction,” John said.

“Maybe,” Ben said. “But it explained a lot of things physicists had been observing with quantum particles since the beginning of the twentieth century.”

“Hugh Everett?” Maureen asked. “That’s the physicist you’re talking about?”

“Yes,” Ben said. “Hugh Everett. So the intelligence officer had an idea, and he contacted Everett and asked him if he would take a look at a problem they had been working on for ten years. Everett agreed, and they gave him top secret clearance, and showed him the metal from the UFO. It interested Everett enough that he surprised his colleagues by leaving academia and joining the defense department.

“What his colleagues didn’t know is that Everett became the lead scientist of a new division called the Institute for Defense Analysis. IDA. With his new position came an unlimited budget to investigate his theories…which were now all top secret.

“Everett was convinced that while the metal from the UFO was of alien origins, the geometrical patterns contained equations that were close to what he had been working on to develop his theories on quantum physics. One of those theories, was that the missing anti-matter in our universe might exist in an alternate world. He believed the equations were evidence of an alternate world that was somehow interfering with ours.

“Eventually, The IDA cannibalized the other Intelligence Agencies and their authority expanded. IDA became IA and they had their tentacles in everything. But a small group kept working on the theories of Hugh Everett, even after he died. They were pretty much ignored by most of IA. But that changed toward the end of the twentieth century.”

“What happened?” Maureen asked.

“A couple of things. One is that a robot ship crashed in Central America, and we were able to capture a damaged, but fully functional robot. We learned how to control it with the EMF, and we learned where it came from. This solar system, and this planet. Then the Fortuna Mission was launched, with the captured robot and engine. And they came here.”

“Looking for the robots,” Judy said.

“No. The White Room,” Will said. “For what it could do.”

“Yes, Will. Your White Room. For what it could do,” Ben said.

“What are you talking about?” Maureen asked.

“One of the things we had determined with the captured robot, is that it was a highly advanced DCS. A data collection system. We believed its true purpose was exactly that. Data collection.”

“The Watchers,” Judy said. “That’s what all of the tribes called them.”

“Not just the tribes here Judy,” Ben said. “The Watchers have been part of religion and mythology throughout Earth’s history. So if this was their true function, they had to do something with the data.”

“The White Room,” Will said. “They told me it was a computer that collected the data in both worlds.”

“Yes,” Ben said. “But it is more than a computer Will. It is a massive quantum computer. From what we can tell, there has never been anything like it. A quantum computer is not like a normal computer. A normal computer can solve a maze by taking every path in the maze, one at a time, until it determines the correct path. A quantum computer can determine every path at once to arrive at the correct one.”

“Because it’s in a superposition,” Maureen said.

“Yes,” Ben agreed.

“What does that mean?” Penny asked.

“Schrodinger’s cat before the box is opened,” Will said. “The cat can be either alive or dead, but once the box is opened, it can only be one or the other.”

Maureen looked at Will and smiled.

“Yes,” Ben said. “Except for one correction. The cat _is_ both alive and dead in the superposition. Observing it causes it to…become only one. That’s how quantum particles behave. They can be in many places at the same time until they are observed. And there’s no reason that matter in classical physics behaves differently. So we are not sure what reality actually is. We only know what we observe. The cat is either alive or dead because we are observing it in one world. In an alternate world it could be dead. Or maybe it was never put in the box to begin with. This is what Everett believed was happening. All possibilities do exist.”

“OK, Ben,” John said, sounding impatient. “Why is this computer so important?”

“Well, that’s the second thing that happened, John. In the late twentieth century a physicist proposed an idea. That a quantum computer which could store the data from two parallel worlds, would be capable of determining the entire history of the universe from the big bang, and calculating it’s entire future and everything in it. Without a quantum computer, there would be no way to store enough data. And in one world alone, there would not be enough data to make the determinations. But a quantum computer that straddled both worlds could do it.”

“Laplace’s Demon,” Maureen said. “You were looking for Laplace’s Demon.”

“Who’s…what?” Penny asked.

“A supreme consciousness,” Maureen said. “To answer the ultimate questions. How was the universe formed? Is there a purpose to it all? And...what happens when we die?"

“Yes,” Ben replied. “Einstein once said he wanted to know how God created the world. He said he wasn’t concerned with this or that phenomena or the elements, he wanted to know God’s thoughts. He said the rest were just details.

“One hundred years earlier, Pierre-Simon Laplace proposed a thought experiment. That in a deterministic universe, where all events are linked...a being with a complete understanding of the universe at any point in time, would be able to predict the outcomes of every event based on cause and effect, and trace every historical event back to the Big Bang. The being would have complete knowledge. This being would be omniscient.”

“God,” Will said.

“Yes. In essence,” Ben said. “Though later physicists referred to this hypothetical being as a demon. Laplace’s Demon. I believe they were more accurate.

“There were three weaknesses in Laplace’s thought experiment,” He continued. “He developed his theory in eighteen fourteen. And physicists lined up to prove him wrong. The first problem was that there would be no method to collect enough data to analyze. The second problem was that there would be no way to store enough data. But the robots and a quantum computer that straddled two parallel worlds could be the solution to these problems.”

“You said there were three problems,” Judy said. But she wasn’t looking at Ben, she was looking at Will. She had a premonition like when Will was going to leave with the Robots, and everyone was asking him what he was doing. She knew then, and she knew now. This was about her brother.

Before Ben answered, Maureen said, “The measurement problem.”

“Yes,” Ben said. “This has always been the problem in quantum physics. If you flip a coin, measurement occurs when the coin lands. We observe heads or tails. But in quantum physics the coin is both heads and tails until you see it. Its in a superposition. How do you measure something in a superposition? Laplace’s Demon would be able to observe the coin before it is tossed, while it is in the air, while it is both heads and tails, and how it will land in either world. He would have complete knowledge, not just of every possible position the coin would be in, but in every position it is in at every point. He would know how every coin ever tossed would land, before it is tossed.”

“Laplace’s author,” Penny said. They all looked at her. “A novelist. The Demon would know every character before it is written. Everything the character will do. Whether the character will live or die. _How_ the character will live or die. And if the character dies, The Demon can just change it. Make it a dream. Or bring the character back to life. Just change the ending by writing a sequel. Every character and every reader is at the mercy of the Demon. It can play any game it wants to with the characters and the readers. It has all the power.”

Everyone was looking at her. The least scientific among them had explained the complicated concept in the simplest terms.

“When Hastings said he was looking for what was in the White Room, he said it was everything. This is what he meant,” Will said.

“Yes. You see, IA had determined that this alternate world had built the computer and a data collection system with the goal of creating Laplace’s Demon. And IA wanted it.”

“But only Will could measure it,” Judy said. “Because he could connect with the robots.” She had not stopped looking at her brother. Will still held the gun with two hands, pointed at Ben, but it was resting in his lap.

“Yes,” Ben said. “You see the robots are much more than advanced data collection systems. They were designed with integrated cognitive control architecture. The first true cognitive AI technology. Almost human consciousness. _Almost_.

“Something…or someone…was needed to connect to their cognitive architecture. Our theory is that they were waiting for the person who could connect to the robots like Will did.”

“Like he connects to his opposite,” Penny said.

“What?” Ben asked.

“He can…visit his alternate version in the other world,” she said. She was still looking at Will.

“You can do this, Will?” Ben asked.

“I want to hear the rest, Ben.” Will said.

“When those in the other world saw you could connect to the robots, share your mind and theirs, they knew they could use you for their measurement tool.”

“ _Tool?_ ” Penny said bitterly.

“Yes,” Ben said. “Late in the twentieth century, a physicist proposed a solution to the measurement problem in quantum physics. That it would be found in human consciousness. Artificial Intelligence has never been able to duplicate the human brain. This physicist proposed that the human brain would be able to integrate with a computer’s cognitive architecture and orchestrate the measurement of quantum states. He believed quantum mechanics was the answer to consciousness. In Near Death Experiences, a person could both leave his body, and see his body below him when having an out of body experience. He was in a superposition, and his subconscious was capable of observing both states.

“We believed the alternate world had reached the same conclusion centuries ago. They needed a human. A conscious human brain to connect to the robot’s neural network."

"Ben, I still have no idea what the hell you're talking about," John said. "If this is all true, they have data, they have a huge computer, can't they just look at the data?"

“No. The data collected by the robots and stored in the quantum computer is in a superposition. We cannot observe the superposition without changing it. The coin lands on heads or tails once its observed. It had to be converted to classical physics. But through the robots, Will would be able to access their data. And observe the data in all positions. To see Schrodinger’s Cat before it was placed in the box, while it was in the box both alive and dead, and after the box was opened in two alternate worlds. The one in which the cat was alive, and the one in which it was dead. To see every coin ever tossed in every position it will ever be in. And they could record this data. A quantum computer has no hard drive. No way to copy the data. But they could observe the data through Will."

"How?" Judy asked.

"The room changes," Will said. "I saw it inside the computer. Twice. It's like you are looking at all of the surrounding white, then it disappears and something else appears. The last time it was the bag of poison." Judy and Will just looked at each other for a second, remembering. 

“You converted your thoughts to a classical state that they could observe," Ben said. "Their scientists determined that they needed a Will Robinson to connect the robots in both worlds, and observe their data while in the White Room."

“What…does this make me?” Will asked. They could hear the pain in his voice. See it in his eyes.

“Will,” Ben said. “Had you done what they wanted; it would have made you Laplace’s Demon.”

Will stared back at him without speaking, everyone was watching the boy. They didn’t know what to say to him.

Finally he said, to Ben, “How did they do this…to me?”

“We have two theories, Will. Either you were naturally capable of connecting to the robots...and that seems very unlikely...which leaves the second possibility. You were intelligently designed. By those in the alternate world or someone…or something…else. To be Laplace’s Demon, able to see everything.”

“Can we please stop calling my brother a demon?” Penny asked.

Ben looked at her then continued. “This is what IA wanted you for Will. Once they saw how you connected to your robot; you became the most important person in the world to them.

“If it wasn’t natural, how the alternate world did it to you is pure conjecture on our part. They are an advanced society. One theory is that they altered your genetic code, creating a gene pool which would lie dormant in your blood line until the time that humans had advanced enough to discover this planet. Probably on your mother’s side. We have witnessed how you and your sisters shared dreams. And since Judy is not John’s biological daughter…it would probably be through her bloodline. It may be why your cognitive readings were so abnormally high when you were connected to the robots.

“We believe this is why they became so interested in our nuclear facilities. It wasn’t because of the weapons technology, but because we had reached the space age.

“Those from the alternate world were preparing for the time Will Robinson was born and was able to connect to the robots. They waited for you, even if they didn’t know who you were. The sign was the connection with the robots. They may have thought I was a possible replacement because I was close twice. The first time I worked with Scarecrow, and when he saved me. I had a glimpse of what it was like. But it was fleeting. I could never do what you did.

“Will, we believe they may have designed you to be a human computer chip, so to speak.”

Will just stared at him. He was pale. “I would connect to one robot, and…spread from host to host. I’m not a chip. I’m a virus.” He sounded totally defeated. He started shaking and tears ran down his cheeks.

Maureen started to walk toward him, but stopped when Judy stepped forward and hugged him.

Judy held Will for a minute while he cried. Then she stood, touched him on the cheek and said, “I’m going to take the gun, Will.”

Will just nodded. Judy took the gun from his lap and walked over and handed it to her father, then walked back by Will where Penny was hugging him. Penny let him go, then stood beside him, slightly behind his chair with a hand on his shoulder.

Judy walked over and stood opposite her, Robot in the middle directly behind them. They didn’t have to say anything, the message was clear. Will was no longer alone in this, and never would be. None of them would be.

Maureen took John’s hand, and tears came to her eyes as she looked at the four of them. For the first time since leaving Earth, she was not worried about her children. Coming to space had changed everything. She had thought she could bring them to Alpha Centauri, give them a new life. They would find love, raise families, and build futures. But now she saw she had been naïve. This wasn’t their neighborhood back home. The park a few blocks away. Track meets and tennis tournaments. It was a different world and it had different plans for them. They needed each other to face it. And, as she saw them there…together….she knew they would be a formidable force if anyone or anything tried to harm any of them. And Robot would always be there.

Will said to Ben, “This is what you were trying to do with Scarecrow. To connect to him and become this… _demon_.”

“I was trying to connect to Scarecrow. And it’s why I came back to the planet with your mother. I have not been looking for the robots or the engines. I’ve been looking for the quantum computer. The White Room. I hoped to find it before you did.

“When I heard what you could do with the robots, I had to see it for myself. And once I did, I wanted to get you off the planet. But you were going to bring Scarecrow back. So I came with you, and locked you on the flight deck and took Scarecrow myself. I thought you were safe, but when Judy told me the robots had brought you back, I knew we had to find you. Because I knew this was about you. And I knew IA would never let you be the child you should have been.” Tears came to his eyes as he said this. “So I needed to find this room before you did. And you would be free. Of all of it.

“I was never allowed into the tunnel by the Kur, so I spent my time in the painted room, trying to figure it out. I had decided it was here near the Valley, beneath the high mountain. They call it the place for the Azul. The place of the robots. I thought it might be where the computer was kept. I found robots in a state of suspended animation. Hundreds of them. And space ships and engines. But I didn’t find the White Room here.”

“The power was so appealing to you?” Will asked. “That’s why you wanted to find it before I did?” His voice was biting.

“No Will. I wasn’t trying to find it for the power. I wanted to destroy it.”

“Destroy it?” Maureen said, her surprise obvious. At her core she was still a scientist.

“Yes. I have not worked with IA for many years. I’ve been working against them. Though inside. Some of us decided that this search for this supreme being had to be stopped.”

“Why?” John asked.

“Because we don’t know what it would mean. What we have learned from quantum physics could be stored in a thimble. What we don’t know will fill volumes. We know the reality we see in the classical world seems to be different in the quantum world and we don’t know why. We know that particles are entangled with each other and can alter the behavior of other particles even when they are light years apart. Einstein called this spooky action at a distance. He didn’t know why it happened and neither do we. We know particles behave differently when they are observed than when they are not. And we don’t know why.

“We have no idea what a being would do if it was capable of knowing everything. Beyond the power this thing would have to predict future events and tell us everything that happened in the past, we don’t know if it could alter reality. Maybe just the act of observing would cause everything to change, as it does in the quantum world.

“One of the arguments against a deterministic world is Chaos Theory. A slight temperature change, a change in wind direction…can alter the state of a system. But maybe the being could _cause_ chaos. Maybe it could decide it wanted the coin to land on heads and not tails and interfere with the system. This could change the past as well as the future. A butterfly effect. What if Hitler split the atom before we did? He was certainly close.

“None of these things are known to us. But this is: Those in the alternate world wanted the demon to be in this world, not theirs. At least the physical part of him.

“Laplace thought this being would be outside the system, observing, with no way of interfering with it. Using Penny’s example, according to Laplace, this being would be the reader once he has finished the novel. Possessing the knowledge of everything that had happened from the beginning to the end. But having no power, other than to report what he had read. Our fear was that it would be Penny’s author. Capable of altering the very world it observed in anyway it chose.

“Once we realized a human was required to be the Demon, some of us knew we had to stop it. Think about it Will. What if you could witness your own death. Over and over again, in different worlds. How would you react to that?”

Will thought about what Roana had told him. The many ways they could see him die.

“What if you could see Penny die over and over again?” Ben continued. “If you had the ability to see this, would you try to alter it?”

Will looked up at his sister. “Yes. Over and over again,” he said.

“When they saw what you could do with the robots, the Intelligence Agency thought you would be this Dem..person. You could control the robots, and they would control you,” Ben added.

“But I don’t.” Will said.

They all looked at him.

“See that’s what everyone gets wrong,” He said. “I don’t control them. Maybe I controlled Robot at first, I don’t know. But after I told him to walk off…after Doctor Smith repaired him and he came back, he made a choice to save my life from SAR. Yes, when I connected with Robot, something happened. We could feel each other, read each other’s thoughts sometimes. The same with the other robots. Like with my mirror self. But I don’t control them. They are like…friends. Or like my sisters. Part of me. But they do these things because they are helping me, not because they are following my orders. They…care about me.”

“And he cares about them,” Penny said.

“But, Will,” Ben said, “If what you’re saying is true, it means they are not _almost_ conscious beings. They became conscious beings when they connected to you.”

Will didn’t answer. He just sat there between his sisters, each of them with a hand protectively on his shoulders.

Finally he said, “You know something Ben. I don’t want to try and figure that out. I’ve spent two years trying to understand all of this. And then Hastings, The Ladore, and now you all tell me what you know to explain what has happened to me. And I just realized it doesn’t matter anymore. I can’t change it. I can’t bring back the people who died. Bob. Brent’s soldiers and Marsha. Tom and Billy. Ravi ja. Doctor Smith…” He choked on the words. His sisters squeezed his shoulders.

Penny looked at her parents. They knew she had been right then. About Doctor Smith and what she had done.

“And five thousand soldiers in the mountains. They were our enemies, but they were people too, all caught up in this game that none of us knew anything about. So many people died. And in the end, I’m still not sure I understand it. So how Robot and I connected, TAR, the others…I don’t care. I mean, do we have to know everything? I know they are my friends, Ben. Can’t that be enough?”

Ben looked around at the family. At Will sitting between Judy and Penny, with Robot standing behind his chair. His friend. Ben smiled. “Yes, Will. Yes it can be enough.”

Then Ben said, “Will. You said Doctor Smith died. Can you talk about what happened?”

“He doesn’t want to talk about it,” Judy said.

“No, I need to,” Will said. “Everyone needs to know. But, Dad, can you call Don first. And have him bring Nin. They should know too.”

They were all sitting around the Hub as Will told them everything. Nin was sitting next to him, holding his hand. She and Dr. Smith had developed a bond after Will had left the planet. The type of bond that two people who have no one else often form when their worlds collide. She was visibly upset as Will explained what the Ladore had told him.

“I think Robot and I were buried for days or even a week or more," Will said. "I was unconscious, but once we were free, he carried me to the Ladore. I think you guys had already left and came here, and I was too injured for him to try and get me to you. He knows the Ladore are more than just a tribe, and I think that’s why he took me to them.”

“Doctor Smith wrote the line in my journal to tell me what she was doing,” Penny said. “She was changing places with you like Sydney Carton did in A Tale Of Two Cities.”

Ben looked around at the faces of the Robinsons. Then he said, “But what now, Will? Robot is here, and this other robot. TAR, you call him. Has gone back with Gary and Clark. But the captured robot is no longer functional…alive. If we are going to get more people from Earth, it looks like it is you and Robot. You’re fourteen Will. Do you want to spend your life doing that?”

“I have an idea, but if it doesn't work and that’s what it takes to get everyone from Earth, yes. I will do it. If that’s what I do for the rest of my life.”

“If it is, you’ll have company,” Penny said.

"You will,” Judy agreed.

Later that night, Will was alone in the Hub, sitting on the crescent shaped couch, looking out the window, his chair next to him. He could see the lights flickering in the tiny houses across the small river. He had been quiet all afternoon, after what Ben had told him. Judy and Penny walked in and took a seat on each side of him. They leaned their heads against his.

“You didn't tell them about the Ancient City,” Judy said.

“Yeah,” Penny agreed. “About our dreams of it. How we’ve been dreaming the same thing.”

Will thought for a few seconds before answering. “Yeah, I don’t know if it’s real or not. But in everything else I saw, others were there. Nin, Bob, Brent, Rose, even Silvia. And Mom and Dad. But never in the Ancient City. It was only the three of us.”

He paused. “I think that possible future is ours. Just ours.”

“We’ve all three dreamed of a place that the Ladore say is part of their origin myth,” Judy said. “How is that possible?”

“Unless it’s real,” Penny said.

They grew quiet. They were all thinking of the dreams they had had of the city. Then Judy said, “Will, in my dreams you were running through the city with me. And…you were enjoying it.”

“Me too,” he said. “I was scared, but even that was fun.”

“Yeah,” Penny said. “But you were still the same. You didn’t want us to kill anyone.”

“But you already had,” Will said.

“But they kidnapped me!” She protested. Then they were all laughing.

"This is so weird,” Judy said. “But did you hear what I said, Will? You were running.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this is another complicated chapter I decided to add a few notes for clarity. Let's see how that works out : )
> 
> First, I don’t claim to have more than a very (Very, very) rudimentary knowledge of quantum physics or quantum computing. I do have an interest in both, and I take solace in the fact that most scientists who study quantum physics still aren’t sure of what’s going on. That’s why most theories are called “interpretations.” 
> 
> I use the Many World Interpretation for the foundation of this story. Not because I think it makes any more or any less sense than others, but because it interests me and it fits nicely with the story I wanted to tell. 
> 
> Some facts:
> 
> Hugh Everett was a physicist who proposed the many world interpretation in 1957, though he didn’t call it that. 
> 
> He did go to work for the defense department soon after, and worked on classified weapons systems for a department managed by a group called the Institute for Defense Analysis. The IDA seems to have started as a private organization which included academia, industry and the U.S. military. You could build a lot of conspiracies around them I suppose, but I used them for my origin story of what I call IA, or the Intelligence Agency. 
> 
> Everett’s Many Worlds Interpretation proposed that everything that can happen, actually does happen. It just happens in a different world. In his interpretation, there was one large universe composed of many worlds, where every decision a person makes creates a new world where that version of the person is just as real as the one we experience.
> 
> I tried to simplify it as much as possible to keep the story interesting, but it’s more complicated than just “we don’t know what’s happening and it could be this.” It involves wave collapse, decoherence, quantum entanglement and a number of other things physicists still look at to try and figure out why our reality in the quantum world seems different than what we experience in the classical world. The fact is, we really don’t know what reality is.
> 
> Laplace’s Demon was an actual thought experiment, in which Laplace tried to demonstrate what a deterministic universe would be like. Every event is determined by a preexisting cause, including moral decisions, meaning there is no free will. A being, that later physicists would refer to as Laplace’s Demon, would be able to know every previous event and future event, as long as he had enough data at any point in time. 
> 
> The thought experiment was considered invalid because of the reasons I mention in the story, and the fact that atrophy would cause the past events to be incalculable. (past states have deteriorated until they no longer exist) 
> 
> The Physicist, David Deutsch, himself a proponent of the Many Worlds Interpretation, suggested that a quantum computer massive enough, and capable of calculating the data in two parallel worlds simultaneously, would be able to overcome the challenges to Laplace’s Demon, and in fact, be able to calculate every event that has ever happened or will happen. 
> 
> In trying to make all these strange concepts as scientifically feasible as possible, and tie Will to it, I toyed with the idea of consciousness and how they would need a human mind to solve the problem of measuring things in a superposition. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Nobel Prize winning physicist, Roger Penrose, proposed this very thing. That the human brain held quantum states and it would be the answer to the measurement problem in quantum physics in the future. 
> 
> Anyway, I don’t claim to get all the science right, but since most quantum physics is interpretation, I’m comfortable with it.
> 
> I am perfectly aware that this is some pretty heady stuff for a normal reader of fanfic who just wants to while away a few hours reading about their favorite characters, but these things interest me, and I loved the idea of this grand conspiracy to make Will Laplace's Demon. I felt the supernatural element in the show of Will's connection with the robots gave me license to toy with it, so I dragged you along with me. And as an excuse, keep in mind what Penny said about Laplace's author, when she compares the Demon to the writer. It is a bit of a philosophical game I am playing with my self.
> 
> When Will stares up at the storm and remembers the lines from a poem (Alone, Edgar Allen Poe) in which he sees a Demon in a storm, he says the robots didn’t put him in the cage, it was the Demon. The Demon is the writer. In this case me, but any of us who write any type of fiction in any type of medium is in effect, Laplace’s Demon. We exist in a quantum state where we know everything that has happened and will happen and every character and every reader is at our mercy. 
> 
> And…that’s how I entertain myself : D


	56. Chapter 56

The young ruler looked over the city from the open chamber wall. It was midday and the thoroughfare was full of people, but he could see the crowds parting as the Visitors walked toward the Castle. They had all the features of humans. They looked male but they were larger than an average man, both of them two meters tall, hairless and pale white with overly large skulls.

Their kind had not been in the city in centuries, and no one alive had ever seen them, but the people knew who they were, and gave them wide berth. The two Visitors ignored everything around them and kept their steady pace toward the Castle.

“Let them say their piece and leave,” Fran Pol said. Actually, it was a hologram of her, but the technology was perfect, and she looked as real as the others in the stone chamber. “We do not want this to be any worse than it already is. We need to treat them with respect.” The woman knew the young ruler well and was afraid his ego would get in the way of his sense.

The King turned to the image of Fran Pol. “This is _my_ city. They will treat _me_ with respect.”

“It is your city only in that they allow you to rule,” She said.

“I am not my ancestors,” the young man replied bitterly. “And I am not afraid of them.” He turned back and looked out over the city, watching the two approach.

Fran Pol looked to the Priest, who stood behind the King a couple of meters. The man just shrugged his shoulders.

She then glanced behind her where the King’s son stood. The boy was sixteen and the spitting image of his father. Stone chiseled features and flowing blond hair. Eyes cold and gray as his ancestors before him. The boy was standing quietly, as was his nature, watching the Visitors down below as they approached. The future King seemed to be more curious than anything else. He’s the one to watch, Fran Pol thought. He is smarter than his father, and not as reckless. And possibly the cruelest the bloodline had ever produced, if her sources were correct.

Fran Pol looked back down toward the thoroughfare, watching the approach of the Visitors. She had never thought she would live to see them in the flesh. The council was waiting to hear what she had to say. The true council. There were only six members and they were the only ones who really knew what The Project had been about. She couldn’t figure out how it had gone wrong. I’m not the only one, she thought.

A few minutes later, the Visitors entered the chamber from the long, winding stone staircase. The King had not taken his throne, but had stepped away from the open wall.

The Priest ran to the two Visitors and prostrated himself and began chanting, his forehead on the cold stone floor. They walked past him without a glance. The Priest stopped chanting, pushed himself to his feet, and scurried back toward the rear of the chamber.

There were several guards standing near the King, but none of them tried to interfere when the Visitors approached. The two pale beings glanced at Fran Pol’s hologram, but stopped in front of the King.

“Welcome to the Ancient City,” The King said.

They just stared back at him for a moment, then one of them said, “Explain.”

“Explain? There is nothing to explain. Those women interfered, or this would have been finished.”

“You assured us that this would succeed,” the Visitor replied.

“It should have, but there was nothing I could do.”

“You play your games with the myths and religion, hiding in their literature and their art and their architecture, all to amuse yourselves. We allow your little pleasures to a point. But now…explain.”

“Amuse ourselves? That’s how we manipulate them. We brought the boy to the mountains with these _games_. Besides. You can’t blame me. If you had finished those witches when you had the chance…”

“How did they do this?” This was the second Visitor. He had not yet spoken. His features were identical to the other, yet there was something about him. Something more dangerous.

“That boy. That boy and his sisters…” The King said. “This is as much your fault as mine. More so. You speak of _our_ games. You played the deadliest game of all. Your genetic engineering. You are the architects of all this. You sent the synthetic to the boy. Now the boy has an army of synthetics. _You_ tell _me_ how it happened. How did you lose control? What did the boy do to the synthetic?”

Neither of them responded, but the King saw a slight change in their stoic expressions. And suddenly it was clear to him.

“You don’t know do you? You don’t know how he did it. And…you are afraid of him. Afraid of his sisters. Because you don’t know what they are. You come to _my_ city and threaten _me_ , yet three human _children_ have you frightened. That’s why you are here.” Then he laughed.

The King didn’t see the Being move…the dangerous one. Maybe he saw a rift in the space between them. But a gray shape was suddenly to The King’s right. The young ruler started to turn, then he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. It rested there for a second. Before he could turn all the way, The Visitor was standing in front of him again beside the other one.

And the King felt a change. There was no pain, more like his body’s composition altered slightly. “No!” He said. “No!”

He walked toward the two stoic beings but stopped, knowing it would make no difference. It was the Eternal Death. In reality, it would last no more than several days. But his body would begin to roast from the inside, and his final days would end in relentless pain. He would lose sanity long before he would die, and still the pain would not cease until his brain cooked and began to flow. The death would feel like an eternity.

He looked at the two expressionless _things_ in front of him. Then he turned toward the open wall and walked slowly until he stood at the edge. He paused, stepped forward and fell to the marble patio below.

Inside the chamber there was a collective gasp and the guards and the Priest stood with horrified looks on their faces. The hologram of Fran Pol seemed to shudder. The two Visitors turned to the boy. The child had shown no reaction to what he had just witnessed. One of the Visitors said, “You are now the King. Bring the boy and his sisters here. Do not fail.”

They turned to Fran Pol’s image. “You will deal with that boy's family in your world.”

“We are not barbarians,” she said. “That is this world.” Her voice was calm, but they could sense her fear.

They just stared at her. Finally she said, “They will be dealt with.”

The Visitors turned and exited the way they had come. Fran Pol watched the boy, who was now the King, walk to the edge of the chamber and look down where his father’s body was splayed across the courtyard. The boy’s expression hadn’t changed. The Visitors walked past the body without looking at it, and continued into the thoroughfare without a glance back.

“What was it about?” The boy asked. He was looking down at the courtyard still, at the crumpled and broken body of his father, but Fran Pol knew he was speaking to her.

“Did your father not explain it to you?” But when the boy looked at her she knew he had not. And of course he wouldn’t have. The King had expected to rule for decades, and would have killed the boy himself had he thought he was a danger to his throne.

“What do you know of them?” She asked.

“What everyone knows,” the boy replied. “The Old Ones. They built the city. Created us.”

Fran Pol smiled. “So it is said. It has been repeated for so long, no one remembers if _they_ taught this to _you_ , or if _you_ taught this to _them_. Always the question. Did God create man, or did man create God? What if, instead of gods, they are just... _more_ than we are? What if they crawled out of the slime like the the rest of us? They had to know. The answer to the only question that really matters. Is there a purpose to it all? That’s what it was about.

“Your father was correct. They were the architects. But they needed us. To find the answer. The technology from our world, and in your world…a human they could use and then discard. But in the human they found a boy who could do something they could not. He brought life to the synthetic. That is why they are afraid of him. Afraid of his sisters. Because…those three children may be more than _they_ are. And that is something the Old Ones have never seen."

They stood watching as the two Visitors disappeared down the wide street on their way toward the wall.

“I will not fail,” The boy King said. “Can you hear me?”

Fran Pol thought he was speaking to her, but then he said, “Can you hear me, Will Robinson?”

She saw the boy smile. She watched him for a few seconds, then her hologram disappeared.


	57. Epilogue

"In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.

And God said, 'Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done.'

And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak.

God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.

'Everything must have a purpose?' asked God.

'Certainly,' said man.

'Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,' said God.

And He went away.”

\- Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle

"Shit, we’re going to be late,” Judy said. She steered the Ecar off the path through the woods and on to the perimeter road toward the town.

“Because our brother takes so long,” Penny said. She was sitting in back and reached up and ruffled his hair. “That’s why mom and dad left without us.”

“What’s the rush, they’re opening a convention center? I don’t even know why we’re going,” Will said.

“Mom says we need to be more a part of the community,” Penny answered.

“Seriously Penny? You care about that?” Will asked.

“Are you kidding? Of course not, but we have to humor Mom.”

They had been back on Alpha Centauri for two months. The first month Will spent in the hospital. He thought of that now, as they drove through the dark streets. It was the first place Judy had taken him. They needed to find out about his legs, but there was so much that had happened, they needed to know how much permanent damage had been done. And at Judy’s insistence they did a multitude of brain scans. They finally found it. An implant so minuscule it was almost impossible to detect.

When he woke from surgery in the recovery room, his family was around him. After he was fully aware, Judy held out her palm and he saw the tiny metal object.

“You were right Will,” she said. “IA did this. The doctors said it scanned your brain waves. But it was also a time release capsule to manipulate serotonin. It induced mood swings. They think they did it to make you easier to control. That didn’t work, but with all you had already gone through, it made your PTSD even worse. And when we were back on Earth, they removed the first one and replaced it with this one. Probably more powerful. Soon after that, you told Hastings you would do what he wanted. This is probably why he trusted you. He thought it was working. I think your headaches will get better now.”

As they drove through town it began raining and Will remembered his last day on the Amber Planet.

He and Nin had spent all day seeing their friends. Brent and the soldiers who had all made their homes in the Valley, and many of the Dal. They spent the afternoon in the orchards with Jerry. When they were back by the Jupiter 2, Will played with the big animal’s head and ears as he laid it on the boy’s lap. Then Will told him, “You have to stay here Jerry. With Nin and Brent, OK. Go to the big house.” Will buried his head in the animal’s fur and hugged him. Jerry looked confused, rubbed his head once more against Will’s chest, then trotted off across the field toward the house on the hill.

Will and Nin watched him go, then Nin said, “I think it’s going to rain. Want to go up to the hill?”

Will smiled and the two headed toward the foothills.

After the night with Judy and Penny, talking about their dreams of the city, Will had begun trying to move his legs, both sisters pushing him every day to try harder. He had begun to get feeling back, but he still couldn’t move more than his feet. The path leading up wasn’t too steep and the wheelchair had no problem making the incline. Once at the top, Nin helped him until they were both sitting, looking out at the Valley. They sat in silence for a long time, then Will said, “is this how it’s always going to be Nin? I come back and see you, then we sit here and tell each other goodbye?”

“No, not always Will. One day you will stay. After you go find what it is you are supposed to do. After you travel the stars, see other worlds. Then you’re going to come back here, and we’ll walk the same paths we have walked since you woke up in your bedroom, watching me pretend like I’m straightening up your room while you’re pretending to be asleep.”

He smiled. “You knew?”

“Of course I knew.”

“I watched you and was wondering who you were. Where I was. And…you were so beautiful. When you leaned over me, you smelled sweet, and it reminded me of the smell of a flower from back home. Night Jasmine. I didn’t know where I remembered it from at the time, but now I know it was from my grandmother’s garden. She had a porch and we would sit out there at night and if it rained the Night Jasmine smelled so sweet. And that’s what you reminded me of.”

She smiled at him. “I love you Will. I think I always have. In every world. And I’ll be here when you come back.” Then she kissed him. She gently pushed him to his back and smiled down at him. “Let’s see how much feeling you’re getting back.”

Turned out he was getting enough back, he thought, smiling at the memory.

Judy turned the Ecar into the parking lot of the new convention center. “Lot of people here,” Will said, looking at all the small cars and a few Chariots. Judy drove around to the back of the building. “Where are you going?” Will asked.

“There’s another door back here,” she said. “It won’t be as far for you.” She pulled up at the rear of the building. Penny got out and walked around to Will’s side, reached her hand down to help him out, then handed him the crutches that she had taken from the back seat. Judy led her siblings to the door, pushed it open and they were in a long hallway.

“You know where you’re going, Judy?” Will was behind her, moving slowly because of his crutches, Penny bringing up the rear. The doctors were confident he would fully recover. And his sisters were constantly forcing him to do physical therapy, encouraging him or yelling at him when they thought he wasn’t working hard enough.

“Yes,” Judy said. “I know where I’m going.”

They came to an elevator and Judy pressed the button. They got off at the next floor. Will could hear someone talking now. “This way,” Judy said. She led them up a short staircase. She waited at the top, and when Will stepped up beside her, he could see they were at the side of a stage. There was a podium, and Council President Curry was speaking. Will could hear a crowd of people, though he couldn’t see them from where he stood.

“Judy, what’s going on?” He asked.

“Shhh,” she whispered.

Will listened to Mr. Curry:

“Alpha Centauri has faced many challenges since colonization began. Especially over the last two years with the disappearance of the Resolute, and the attempted coup by the Intelligence Agency over the duly elected council.

“But we have begun to turn the page. Starting next month, both the Resolute and Resolute 2 will be making two trips per month to bring colonists to the planet. We have evaluated our selection process to make sure every man, woman, and child has an equal opportunity to immigrate.

“Our goal is to build two more Resolutes in the next five years to expedite the colonization. This rapid expansion of the Resolute Program and the growth that the colony will experience will bring on many challenges. But if we work together, and if we face the challenges with strength of character, we will be successful.” He paused and the audience broke into applause.

“Politician,” Penny whispered. Judy elbowed her.

“There’s a lot of people here,” Will whispered to his sisters, listening to the crowd clap.

Mr. Curry continued. “The Resolute Project, we all know now, has been possible because of the robots and their engines. In the past, The Intelligence Agency captured and controlled the robots that piloted the ships. But that will no longer be the case. We are now able to communicate with the robots, and they are willing to help with the colonization, as navigators. I propose that this is what we refer to them as: Navigators. We will treat them with respect and friendship.”

He paused while the spectators once again applauded. Penny rolled her eyes. Then Mr. Curry looked over at Will and his siblings. He smiled. He turned back to the podium. “We do not know much about the robots, but our ability to communicate with them is due to one person, as we are all aware.”

Will started to whisper something to his sisters but they both hushed him.

“But communicating with the robots is a small part of the story,” Mr. Curry went on. “And just as we do not know the whole story of the robots, we may never know the whole story of this person. A fourteen year old boy, though he was only eleven when this began for him.”

Will looked at his sisters and said, “What did you do?” They just grinned at him. “Oh fuck,” he said. That was the first time his sisters could remember hearing him use the word.

Mr. Curry went on. “I believe when historians write the story of the early years of the Alpha Centauri colony, and how this colony survived, this boy’s name will hold a prominent place. And so tonight, we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all he has done and all he has sacrificed.”

Mr. Curry turned and looked at the siblings again, pointed an open palm toward them and said loudly, “Will Robinson.”

Will heard the crowd burst into loud applause and cheers. He froze. Then Judy and Penny were pushing him toward the stage, “Go,” they were both saying.

Finally Will walked out to the podium on his crutches. Mr. Curry smiled at him, clapped him on the back and walked off the stage to stand by his sisters.

Will looked out at the crowd as they stood and applauded. His mother and father and Don were in the front row, smiling up at him. Next to them were Clark and Gary. The Dhars were with a lot of the members of the 24th Colonists group. Vijay and Scott Pointer were standing beside each other. He began to look around the room. Rose and Angela and Karl and many of the people from the island he recognized were together near the front. He saw Jeff Curry and Johnny Mays and their friends standing and clapping. And to the right, he saw Silvia and Adrian and Fernando with Tre and the twins. Mike was with them. Then he noticed that entire section held the kids from the city.

As the room grew quiet, Will just looked out at the people, embarrassed and not sure what to say. Finally, he said, “I don’t have a speech ready, since my sisters kidnapped me.” He looked over at them on the side of the stage. They were holding hands and beaming, broad smiles on their faces.

Will went on, “But if it’s true that people remember my name, it’s terribly unfair if so many other names are forgotten. There were so many who sacrificed. Some of them sacrificed much more than I did. There are so many heroes in the story of the Alpha Centauri Colony. “Gary Sargent, Clark Duncan…” He looked down where Ben was sitting with his wife and two boys, all of them smiling. “And Ben Adler…were all there on the Amber Planet and all part of this.”

“Vijay Dhar and his parents, and my friend from my old neighborhood on Earth, Scott Pointer.” He smiled down at them. “Rose and Karl my friends from the island. The Wanatabes, Angela and Ava and our friends from the 24th Colonist group. They all did so much to protect me and my family. And there are others. People from a different world who you will probably never know. Bob and Brent and Marsha, Terry and Zana. Ninlil.” He paused and smiled, thinking of her. “Ravi ja. He was a warrior and ruler in his world. He had the courage to try and change things and… he died for it.” Will’s voice broke and he paused for a second.

He looked down at the kids from Earth. “Silvia pulled me from a river and saved me from drowning, and Fernando, Tre, Larry and Jason and Adrian kept me alive.”

“Will Fuckin Robinson!” The small voice rang out through the hall and everyone cracked up. Will saw Silvia with her hand over her little brother’s mouth, but she was laughing with all the others.

When the laughter died down, Will said, “And there are one hundred seventy three kids sitting here who will be part of this new colony that Mr. Curry is talking about. They will help build it. They will marry and have children and help grow it. None of the one hundred seventy three kids would be here today if it wasn’t for two sixteen year old boys, Tom Culp and Billy Spears. They kept them alive for two years and they both died saving them.” He looked at Mike. Mike was smiling and wiping his eyes. “Everyone should remember their names. Tom Culp and Billy Spears.”

“And there is June Harris. Many of you know her as Doctor Smith. She was a complicated person. And she made the ultimate sacrifice to save the colony. To save me.” He had to stop and looked down for a few seconds. Then wiped his eyes and looked back at the crowd. “No one may ever really know her story, but without her, none of us would have survived. Me, my family, or the Colony. June Harris is the true hero in this story. My family will always know her as Doctor Smith. But her name is June Harris.”

After the applause died down, Will said, “And, my family is everything to me, and without them, none of us would be here. Robot, my best friend.” He looked to the rear of the hall where Robot was standing, his face shield blue, with white swirling lights. “He saved my life when I was eleven years old, and has been saving it ever since.”

“Don West, my friend, my older brother, a member of my family and my tribe.” He smiled down at Don who was grinning up at him. “My mom and dad,” he looked down and smiled them. They were holding hands and had tears in their eyes.

“Everything I’ve ever learned about how to treat others came from them. About how to put others before yourself. About strength of character, about right from wrong, and about courage.”

“My dad told me once, if you have strength of character, whatever happens to you will leave you with something. It won’t take anything from you. The bad things that happen as well as the good things.

“I think he’s right. And I think what I’ve taken from everything that’s happened to me, is that the universe is a place that we may never fully understand. Maybe we aren’t supposed to understand it. But as infinite as it is, it is made up of the smallest particles. And we are all connected by these particles. Some of them are so connected to us, that we may be one being.

“I don’t know if that’s true or not. But I sure feel that way about the two most important people in my life. They have always taken care of me, they will always take care of me, and they have always been a part of me. My sisters, Judy and Penny.” He motioned for them to come out. They both shook their heads, but Mr. Curry pushed them on the shoulders, and they walked out and hugged their brother and stood on each side of him smiling while the crowd stood and clapped.

The family stayed for a long time in the lobby afterward, Robot standing by their side. So many people wanted to greet them. The crowd had almost disappeared when a middle age man approached. He looked familiar to Will and Judy and Don, though they couldn’t quite place him. He had a teenage boy and girl with him, and a woman was holding his hand. He walked up to Will. “Will, my name is Zachary Smith. I’m the real Doctor Smith.”

Then they realized they recognized him from his pictures. “You…” Will started and stopped.

“Yes, I survived.” He introduced his wife and children, and everyone introduced themselves.

“I spent two years hating June Harris,” he said. “Not really understanding what happened.”

“Would it help if I told you she never had a choice?” Will asked.

“I’ve already forgiven her. It’s not good to carry those things with you. But, after what you said tonight…I wonder if you would tell me her story sometime?”

Will smiled, “Even if you would never believe it?”

The man looked at his children. “I thought I would never see my family again. Impossible things happen all the time.”

“Where have we heard that before?” Penny said, nudging her brother.

“Yes,” Will said. “I will tell you her story sometime. You deserve to know…Doctor Smith.”

It was late when they were back at the Jupiter 2, but none of them felt like going to bed. They gathered at the round table in the Hub. Don disappeared and came back with a bottle of Scotch. He had not moved out of the ship since returning to Alpha Centauri. He was comfortable there, and the family wanted him around.

When he walked in with the bottle, Maureen said, “Your last bottle, Don?”

“Oh no,” he replied. “I have a ton of this shit stashed away.” They all laughed.

He took glasses out of a cabinet and passed them all around. When he put one in front of Will, Don looked at Maureen and John. “Just a little,” Maureen said. Will had been drinking beer since his days in the Valley at Bob’s cabin, but never much.

When everyone had their glasses, they looked at each other. “To June Harris,” John said. They clinked their glasses and drank.

Will coughed and sat his down and they all laughed. He pushed himself up on his crutches and limped to the cabinet and took out another glass. “What are you doing?” Maureen asked.

“Getting milk. I don’t know how you guys drink that stuff.” They laughed again. After all he had been through, he was still a child in so many ways. And this made them all happy.

They sat and talked for a long time, about the things they had experienced, the people they had met, what those people might be doing now. After a while they grew quiet. None of them had talked about the one thing they didn’t want to face: What now?

Finally Don said, “Did you guys see the construction site on the way back? They finally broke ground.”

“Yeah,” Judy said.

“There will be like, two hundred stores,” Don said.

“And a multiplex,” Maureen added. “Though it will be a long time before the Alpha Film Institute is producing anything new.”

“Yeah,” Judy said again.

“And a S _tarbucks_ ,” Penny said sarcastically.

They sat in silence again for a while, then Maureen said, “I guess I’ll go back to Alpha next week. There’ll be a lot to do with the new Resolutes. Though, most of it is repetitive now.”

“I guess I’ll go back to security,” John said. “More people coming, more problems coming.”

“You Don?” Maureen asked.

“Go back to working on spaceships I guess,” he answered. “And…maybe some new customers on their way here too.” He grinned.

“I guess I need to get back in school,” Penny said. “I’m behind now.”

“Yeah me too,” Will agreed.

Judy said, “I’ll go back to the hospital.” She sighed. “I remember when the thought excited me.”

No one spoke for a while. Robot was standing behind Will’s chair, where he had been since they came in to the Hub.

Finally Judy looked at Will and said, “How many planets with human life did you say are out there?”

“You starting to believe, me?” Will asked.

“It was a hypothetical,” Judy said, and winked at him.

“I don’t know, but they said hundreds,” her brother replied.

“Hmm,” Judy said. “All of those unexplored planets.”

“Where no man has gone before,” Don said. “Uh…that’s Star Trek for you kids.”

“Actually it’s not,” Penny said. “It’s H. P. Lovecraft. ‘Carter resolved to go with bold entreaty whither no man had gone before, and dare the icy deserts through unknown Kadath, veiled in cloud and crowned with unimagined stars.”

“Carter?” Don asked. “Who’s Carter?”

“He’s the hero in several Lovecraft stories. Randolph Carter.”

“Wait…Randolph? _Randy_ Carter?” Don asked.

“Yeah,” Penny said. “I knew Will had started reading Lovecraft. We talked about it when he was home on his first trip from Earth. So when they told me a teenage boy had stolen a Chariot and his name was Randy Carter, I knew it was Will.”

“Tom and Billy, knew it was a fake name too,” Will said. “They were both scifi fans.”

“Randolph Carter kept dreaming of this city he had never seen before,” Penny said. “That’s what it’s about. He had to get to this city.”

“Veiled in cloud and crowned with unimagined stars,” Judy said. “That sounds familiar.” She looked at her brother and sister. Now all three of them had puzzled looks on their faces as they glanced at each other.

“What?” Maureen asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Will said. “I was just thinking of the book.”

Then Judy said, “Will…between you and Robot…hypothetically speaking…if a group of interstellar explorers wanted to try and find any of these planets, would that be possible?”

Will looked up at Robot, and his friend looked down at him. “Yes, that would be possible…hypothetically speaking.”

Everyone looked around. They were all thinking.

Then Maureen said, “Hypothetically speaking…if there were two members of this crew of explorers who could create a rift in space, it wouldn’t be difficult to return pretty much any time…if they decided they wanted a normal life.”

“Yeah,” Will said. “That should be possible. Just as possible as going to the Amber Planet to visit…friends.” 

Penny and Judy looked at each other and smiled. "Or back here," Penny said. "Silvia kinda held that hug a while, little brother." Will blushed.

“Unless they ran in to trouble,” John said, “Which we have seen is a possibility.”

“Will says there are a multitude of possibilities anywhere we are,” Penny said.

The all looked around the room. They were starting to smile at each other as this idea took shape.

“One question, Will,” Don said. “Any possibility…hypothetically speaking…that this group of interstellar explorers could get lost?”

“Well, Penny’s right,” he answered. “There are a multitude of possibilities and it’s a big universe…so...”

“Does that worry you, Don?” John asked.

“Oh no. Just curious.”

“Does it worry anyone else?” John asked.

“Not me,” Maureen said.

“Not me,” Judy added.

“It makes it better,” Penny said, smiling.

“My one concern,” Maureen said, “Is that we came to space for you kids to have a new home. The Jupiter 2 was never supposed to be your home.”

“Mom,” Will said. “Nin asked me where my home was. And…I couldn’t really answer. But now I know. _This_ is my home. Not the Jupiter 2, not Earth, and not Alpha Centauri. Here… surrounded by my family. You guys and Penny and Judy and Don and Robot. The only one missing is Doctor Smith. But other than that, _this_ is home. I don’t care where we are.”

“I agree,” Penny said.

“Ditto,” Judy added.

“So, we’re gonna do this aren’t we?” Penny asked.

“I think maybe we’re going to do this,” Will said.

“When?” Maureen asked.

“Now?” Penny said.

They all grinned. “Let’s buckle in,” Judy said to Will and Penny, always the older sister.

They stood and Penny and Judy each put one of Will’s arms over their shoulders as they started walking to the Flight Deck.

Don grabbed Will's crutches and followed them, Robot close behind.

John and Maureen stayed at the round table.

“Robot you have an idea of where to start?” They heard Will ask as the rest of them made their way to the Flight Deck.

“Yes, Will Robinson.”

“Not, Danger?”

“Always,” Robot answered.

“A new word,” Penny said.

Maureen was looking at her husband. “I’m really surprised you didn’t put up more of a fight,” She said. “It’s relatively safe here.”

“Safe?” John asked. “We did such a great job making Earth safe we destroyed it. Besides, I’m not surprised. There was a reason I met Gary for a few beers last week. I told him I thought this was coming. I’ve seen so many soldiers try to return to a normal life after going through unimaginable things…and sometimes the adjustment is…difficult. I could see it in the kids eyes. They weren’t ready to just go back to a normal life. Gary thinks TAR will have no problem finding Robot, or Will for that matter, the way they are all connected. In case we need them."

“You sure that’s all, John?” Maureen asked. “This sort of reminds me of when you came home from deployments and all you wanted to do was get everyone in the SUV and go camping.”

He smiled, stood up and offered his hand and pulled her to her feet. “Well, maybe I’m not ready either,” he said.

She kissed him. “Guess we better get to the Flight Deck. Where our kids are.”

The Jupiter 2 was in space once again. Robot had taken them through the rift, and they were in a galaxy that Maureen had thus far been unable to find on her charts. But Will had been able to connect to Robot, and could see the solar system that he was guiding them to. The boy had helped his mother chart the course. It would take them two weeks to arrive, and then they would see what they would see.

Will was sitting on the crescent couch in the Hub, looking out at space when his sisters came and sat on each side of him. He smiled when they leaned their heads against his. They sat in silence for a while. He had been much better now that they were all together again, but they could read him well.

Judy said, “How you doing Will?”

He thought for a minute before answering. “I was reading about Robert Oppenheimer.”

“Who?” Penny asked.

“He invented the atomic bomb,” Judy answered.

Will went on. “When he witnessed the first successful atomic test, he said, 'Now I am become death. The destroyer of worlds.’ He was quoting a Hindu text. A discussion between a warrior who felt guilty because of the deaths he was about to cause, and the god, Vishnu. Vishnu explains to the warrior that he has a holy duty to go to war. That it isn’t up to him who lives and dies. It’s up to the gods.”

“I think the Vishnu text is correct,” Judy said.

“Two years later, Oppenheimer said, ‘Physicists have known sin. And this is a knowledge that they cannot lose.’ His sisters were both holding his hands now. “I don’t think Oppenheimer was comforted by Vishnu’s words. He couldn’t justify what he had done.”

“Will…” Judy said.

“I planned it,” he went on. “From the beginning to the end. I had begun to think about it once I realized that they had released the virus. That they dropped food to starving kids, luring them to a park and executing them. I thought, how could anyone do such a thing? And then look what I did. I lured them to the mountains to execute them. It doesn’t matter if Doctor Smith was the one who actually did it. It was my plan. And I would have done it. What does that say about me? When I was a fourteen year old boy, I executed five thousand people as quickly as you can blink your eyes. This is what I did.”

They could feel his pain as deeply as he felt it himself. They knew he would never get past it. At first they didn’t know how to respond. How to help him. Finally, Judy said, “Will, I remember what you said when you were in the room with the robots on the Resolute, preparing to release them. You looked at me and said, ‘what if I _am_ here for a reason. What if _this_ is the reason I’m here?”

“If everything happened the way you said, you were the only one who really belonged in space. It was your destiny. The rest of us were just there because of you, Will. And this thing that happened. It was supposed to happen. Because of the lives that would be saved. So, I know you will always carry this with you, because that’s who you are. But you never asked for this Will. And even after you decided what you were going to do, you wanted someone to stop you. That’s why you left the gun. You wanted me to make the decision and take the burden from you. But I didn’t. I couldn’t kill you. You want to bear all this on yourself Will, but…”

She didn’t know how to finish and just stopped talking. So Penny said, “But that’s what _we’re_ here for. Me and Judy. To help you carry it. We are all part of it. Every step of the way, from the time Judy jumped in the water to keep you from doing it, till she took the Jupiter to find you, and then I flew it to the Red canyons and Robot killed all those people. Robot and _I_ killed all those people. Judy had the chance to stop you in the cave. You gave her the chance, but she didn’t stop you. We helped you get to those caves and do what you had to do. It’s not just your burden. Because…”

“Because Robinson’s stick together,” Judy finished.

Will didn’t respond, but they felt him squeeze their hands tighter. A silent acknowledgement. He was changed from what he had seen and what he had done. And he would never be the same. But he wasn’t alone. He would never be alone. It would always be the three of them.

They had gone to bed. Will was lying with his door open, reading. He liked Dickens but had never read A Tale Of Two Cities, and decided it was time. Judy appeared at his door. “Can I come in Will?”

He smiled, “Of course.”

She walked in and sat down on the bed beside him and reached out and took his hand. “I wanted to talk to you Will. I’ve made so many mistakes with you. But it was all because I wanted to protect you. I need you to know…I’ve never forgotten the river. And what happened.”

“But Judy…”

“I know you got over it and it was just something that happened to you. But I never have. I remember it like it was yesterday. I turned around when I was out of the current and looked back and saw your hands flailing and your face tilted up to the surface, trying to breath.

“You had been afraid to go on the Gauley, and I thought I was helping you. Like always. Like in the ice. Like when I yelled at you on the Resolute. Like when I put you in the hospital.

“Everything I did was because of that day on the river when I thought I killed my little brother. The most important person in my life. I promised myself that day that I would always take care of you. Like I said when mom and dad brought you back from the hospital and let me hold you for the first time.”

“Judy, I remember the first time you held me.”

She smiled at him.

“I’m serious. I looked up at you and smiled. You remember me smiling?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Mom showed you how to hold me and you said, ‘I will take care of you Will. Don’t worry.’ Then I smiled at you and you said, ‘I love you Will.”

“Yeah. Just like that. But…”

“When I was at the Ladore, Roana did something. When I want, I can go to a place in my childhood and be there. I mean really be there. Robot carried me for five days to the Valley, and that’s what I did. I remembered. So many things. It was like…having my childhood back. I can’t explain it. Or how. I think it’s like when you are under deep hypnosis and you discover repressed memories. But its more than a memory. I smiled at you as a baby through my eyes today. As a fourteen year old boy. My infant self knew I was there.

“I remember that day like it just happened. I’ve never felt so loved. I mean, Mom and Dad were with me at the hospital, but there were tubes and the incubator and everything. And then I was brought home, and you were the first person other than doctors or nurses or Mom and Dad who held me. And…you loved me completely, Judy. Like you always have. You’ve never done anything that wasn’t because of how much you loved me."

Judy looked at her brother for a minute, brushed his hair back again, then put her hand on his neck and pulled his upper body toward her. Their foreheads touched and they stayed like that for a long time, not speaking. And all of the pain they had caused each other the last couple of years went away in that moment.

She leaned back and smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek, then stood up. “I have something for you, Will.” She reached in her pocket, took something from it and held out her hand. He stretched out his palm and she placed the object in it. The objects.

Will opened his palm and looked. There were three sleeping pills. He looked up at her. “You do believe me, don’t you?”

“Yes, Will. I believe you. This can’t be a habit. But occasionally….”

“I don’t know if he survived, Judy. When I was unconscious with the Ladore he never made contact. Same when I was in the hospital. I think he might have died in the annihilation.”

“Now that doesn’t sound like my hopeful little brother.” She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead and walked to the door. She turned and smiled at him. “I guess there’s only one way for you to find out.”

She started to walk out, and Will said, “Judy.” She turned. “Close the door please.”

She smiled and gently pulled the door shut.

The boy was standing on the balcony outside his room, looking over the ocean. “I wondered if you would come back,” he said.

“When I was unconscious, and in the hospital when I had surgery, and you didn’t appear, I thought you died in the annihilation,” Will said.

“No. I didn’t try to reach you because…I thought maybe you decided it was time to move on. To forget everything that we have done to you.”

“Did you know what was going to happen? With Doctor Smith?”

“Not until shortly before it happened. Our June Harris was outside the entrance to the chamber in our world, waiting for me. It is located in the desert East of the city. She explained everything. I would have tried to stop her, but it was a way to save you. I guess it’s selfish, because I was saving myself too. But…she told me that her counterpart was committed to this. They both were.

“After Robot had carried you away, Doctor Smith spoke to me. She had a message for you. She said you were the first person who showed her any kindness since she was a small child, and that it was time for you to live your life. That this was her path. She was the one who did the hard things, not you. In the end, she was the one who killed the soldiers, not you. That if you lost the hope that you always had, the flame that has always been inside you, then she will have failed. And she didn’t want to lose both her life and fail. But…you need to name a child after her. And she said Penny would get that.”

Will didn’t respond. His duplicate could sense his feelings. The sharp pain and emotion at Doctor Smith’s words, and then the humor at her final message. “I guess I need to have a daughter someday,” Will said. “Or it will be weird.”

The door slid open behind the boy and his mother stepped out on the balcony. They had been close his entire life, but this had strained their relationship and the boy missed her.

“William, I wanted to tell you that I have resigned from the Council.”

“You have? Why?”

“Because…they will never give up this project, and I can no longer support it. What we did…I just wanted you to know.”

She stepped closer and hugged him. He hugged her back, and they stood together for a few minutes. Then she pulled away. She was still gripping him by his upper arms, but she had a puzzled look on her face. She looked deep into her son’s eyes. Then she smiled. She turned to walk back inside, but at the door she stopped and looked back at her son. “You boys have fun,” She said. Then she was gone.

“She knew,” Will said in the boy’s mind. “How?”

“I don’t know. But she’s my mother. She knows me better than anyone. Except for you.” He turned back toward the ocean and they looked out at the night sky for a while, listening to the waves crash against the shore, and watching the white surf illuminated by the moonlight.

“Hey, Will.” The boy said, speaking aloud. “Want to fly?”

The boy felt Will smile. “Yeah I want to fly.”

“It’s going to rain in seventeen minutes,” The boy said. “There might be danger.”

They both grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this became much more of a story than I had intended, but it was a lot of fun to write, and gave me the chance to play around with characters that I really like while entertaining myself with some themes I’m interested in. Hopefully it entertained a few other people as well.
> 
> I’m grateful for all of the readers who followed it whether you commented or not, and I’m especially grateful for those who took the time to give it kudos and comment. A special thanks to ignate who reviewed it and offered compliments, comments, and criticisms, many of which I took to heart and made a few adjustments that I felt improved the story. 
> 
> I don’t believe everything in a story has to be explained, as long as there is a satisfying ending, and I left a couple things to interpretation. Like, how does Will bring Robot to life? I sort of like what Will said: does it really matter? Which is also my point with the Vonnegut quote at the end. Must there be a purpose?
> 
> I had planned to do that with my whole thing about the Ancient City, which just started as a shared dream sequence, but it became more and more fun for me to toy around with. Finally in the end, I decided to (sort of) reveal what it was about.
> 
> The city they are seeing seems to be the same city that Randolph Carter dreams of in H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.” Penny quotes from it in the epilogue and the siblings look at each other like they suddenly realize that’s the city they have been dreaming of. (Actually the quote was my motivation for the whole Ancient City thing. I was familiar with it, and in my second story, when I was trying to think of how to end the whole thing, I envisioned them sitting around the table and Penny quoting that, and they decide to go back to space instead of staying on Alpha Centauri.)
> 
> Will and Penny have both been reading Lovecraft, so they could be getting the stories mixed up with their dreams, still that doesn’t explain Judy dreaming of it. But I left a hint in chapter 56 when one of the “Visitors,” claims the ruler of the city plays games “hiding in their literature, their art, and their architecture." The ruler suggests it is these games that brought Will Robinson to the cave. Here it could be assumed that they were hiding the existence of The Ancient City in Lovecraft’s fiction as well. Maybe this will eventually bring the kids to the Ancient City?
> 
> Also, the three parts of this story titled, “The Pain Of Lost Things,” “A fever of the Gods,” and “The doomed and desperate dreamer,” are all lines from The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath.
> 
> And when Will decides at the end that his home is wherever his family is, that’s another nod to Randolph Carter, who finds his dream city of Kadath is really his home city of Boston.
> 
> In Will’s quest, he has found his family is his home. 
> 
> Dr. Smith's message to Will, in naming a child after her, and that Penny would "get" it is a reference to A Tale Of Two Cities. Sydney Carton is about to be executed and in his final thoughts, he fantasizes that Lucie Manette and Charles Darnay might name a son for him.
> 
> As for the ending, I realize it might be unrealistic that after everything the Robinsons have gone through to get to Alpha Centauri, they decide to leave. Sorry, but In my mind a happy ending is not Will and Penny hanging out with their friends in coffee shops and at malls, and Judy working twelve hour shifts at a hospital and going to happy hour at the end of the week with her friends. A happy ending to me is the Robinsons back in space on the Jupiter 2, in a superposition, where the possibilities are infinite.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm grateful to everyone who has invested their time to read this series whether you left kudos, messages or not, and hope you have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Like the other two stories, this one is finished, and I will post it over the next few weeks as I rewrite it. I try to post twice a week if possible. 
> 
> Comments and feedback are always welcome.


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